Ex-Scotland star names ‘top-drawer international’ as the key to beating France
Ex-Scotland star names 'The Man Behind Enemy Lines' the key to beating France
Jim Hamilton has named ‘The Man Behind Enemy Lines’ as the player key to Scotland beating France, denying them Six Nations glory this weekend and blowing open the title race.
The unbeaten French descend on Murrayfield needing victory to retain the trophy with a round to spare. Standing in their way is a Scottish side beaten in the last four championship meetings between the countries.
Hamilton, however, believes his former team will spring a shock and that Les Bleus will leave Edinburgh cursing a Toulouse star and two-time winner of their very own Top 14 domestic competition.
Blair Kinghorn was not even named in the Scotland squad for the first two rounds of this Six Nations, yet the full-back was influential on his recall against Wales and is now backed to get the better of a fistful of club-mates.
“A top-drawer international…”
“I know it’s quite a niche one to say a No.15 is the key player because how much influence can a 15 have on a game, right?” said Hamilton. “But with Blair in this fixture, the answer is ‘a lot’.
“Blair has the ability to step up in second receiver, to kick return, to compete under the high ball – a space in which France are unbelievably good. That has been the difference between them and a lot of the other teams, how they have managed to attack off that platform.
“Blair has an understanding of when to kick, when to run, when to go high, when to be brave under the high ball, his positional stuff. This guy is a top-drawer international.
“He has had a quiet time of it so far in this tournament and, as a starting British and Irish Lion, playing for probably the best club team that has ever been, that will have hurt his pride. I suspect Gregor (Townsend) leaving him out will have lit a fire under him and that will only burn more brightly in this match because I know what it’s like when you’re playing international rugby against club-mates.”
Opposing Kinghorn in Edinburgh will be Toulouse pals Thomas Ramos, Antoine Dupont, Anthony Jelonch, Francois Cros, Dorian Aldegheri and Julien Marchand. And that is just from the starting XV.
Hamilton, who is part of the broadcast team bringing live coverage of the game to Premier Sports, believes the 29-year-old Kinghorn will sense this is his time.
“There’s a little bit of a fire now knowing that, right, you are one of the best players in Scotland, you’re one of the best talents we have seen in years, with the likes of Finn (Russell), but, mate, you haven’t been good enough,” he added.
“Even if you’re at Toulouse and you’re winning Champions Cups and Top 14s, we want to see a little bit more. I know for a fact he has got more in him and we will see the best version of Blair Kinghorn on Saturday.”
Kinghorn, who appeared in two of the three Tests in last summer’s British and Irish Lions-Australia series, is far from the only British and Irish tourist who has struggled to recapture his best form this term.
“A lot of the Lions haven’t,” said Hamilton. “A lot of the Lions have looked fatigued, most of them, to be honest with you, when you actually go through all the players. Look at Jamison Gibson-Park. He was under a bit of pressure a fortnight ago, wasn’t he? But look at the performance he put in against England.”
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“We can beat France at the weekend”
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It is hard to overestimate how big a week this is for Scottish rugby. A team that has never won a Triple Crown, let alone a Six Nations since Italy came aboard in 2000, has an opportunity to do both. Get it wrong, however, as they did in Rome on the opening weekend, and the campaign can very easily fall away and be filed in the bin alongside the previous 26 tournaments.
“Look, we can beat France at the weekend,” added Hamilton. “This is a special group of French players, but a team that hasn’t been tested. We actually don’t know how good they are yet. I really don’t know where that side is. For whatever reason, I feel more confident about this game, from a Scottish point of view, than I did the England one.
“I readily admit I’ve been burned many times before, but I can only go based on emotions and feelings and I’m feeling good about it. We go into this knowing that if we aren’t mentally at the level we were against England, as we weren’t against Wales, it could unravel quite quickly.
“We saw Scotland absolutely destroy England, right? So we know they can do it. I know England aren’t as good as we first thought they were, but we were incredible that day. So we know they can get to that level. But it’s the mental aspect of the game that has always been the Achilles heel.
“Hopefully, the wobble Scotland had in Cardiff might just be the catalyst to say, ‘right, that’s what it feels like to win when mentally you’re not there. We get to the right level here and we’ll compete’.
“If you were to break it down and look at the two teams on paper, France are better. But this is sport. Scotland has home advantage. Scotland has fan advantage. And this is the Six Nations, right? Anything can happen.”
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 and Premier Sports Rugby 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.
