'It's our time': Jim Hamilton urges Scotland to seize the day

Jim Hamilton believes it’s Scotland’s time to end their 26-year wait to win their first ever Six Nations crown as they look to party like it’s 1999 by wrecking France’s bid for back-to-back titles.

Gregor Townsend’s side may have won the last Five Nations in 1999, but they have never won it since Italy were added to the expanded competition a year later.

But wins against the red-hot tournament favourites, France, at Murrayfield tomorrow and Ireland at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, in the next eight days could see them do something not many would have predicted after their defeat in Italy.

All the talk then was of Townsend battling to save his job, but wins over England and Wales, and suddenly it’s all about dreaming of ending their long wait to finish top of the pile once again.

“You know what? I am more confident for this one than I was for England, and I don’t know why,” Hamilton told RugbyPass. “I don’t know why, it’s just a feeling and emotion,

“I see this Scotland team, and I’ve said it for the last five years, as a team where it’s our time. We’ve got a great team. You know, yes, on paper, you can say France are better, and you can say the bench is better.

“But when you look at our back line, it’s up there with one of the best in the world. This is a French team that hasn’t been tested, and they are coming to Murrayfield, a place they find tough to play.

“They have also seen what Glasgow did to Toulouse, one of the best club teams in the world, when they were 21-0 up.”

He added: “This team are better than finishing fourth. I think they’re better than finishing third. I would have taken second at the beginning of the championship. I actually thought England would have been better, and it would have been a shootout between France, England and Scotland.

“The next evolution for this team is to go and actually do something that is world recognised, which is winning a Six Nations, if not a Six Nations, winning a Triple Crown.

“And, you know, I don’t think we’re in a position to say that we’re going to win the World Cup, but we’re definitely in a position to be pressing hard in the Six Nations around the 1-2 teams.”

Hamilton says that even though Scotland don’t have the strength in depth of England, France and Ireland, they do have players like Finn Russell, Blair Kinghorn and Ben White who have won big games and trophies.

“It’s the mentality of winning, I’ve been in winning teams, I was at Leicester in 2003 when we had the backbone of the England team that World Cup.

“We were winning Premierships. You need to be in an environment where you’re winning games, and we’re starting to see that now in Scotland. Finn Russell is winning the Premiership with Bath.

“Blair Kinghorn is winning Champion Cups and the Top 14. Obviously, Ben White’s winning games in Toulon. Glasgow are winning the URC. Historically, that’s not been the case.

“I was part of the Scotland team, where we just lost all the time. That’s why we haven’t won anything in the past. We’ve not had that winning mindset or even the understanding of what it feels like to win,” he added.

Jim Hamilton is part of the Premier Sports team bringing live UK coverage of Scotland v France from Scottish Gas Murrayfield this Saturday in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations (Premier Sports 1 from 1.30pm). Join in at www.premiersports.com @premSportsTV for more than 400 elite rugby fixtures every season including EPCR, URC, Top 14, MLR and Japan League One.