Hamilton hopes Scotland's back to basics play continues to reap rewards

Six Nations:When Murrayfield puts up the "sold out" posters days ahead of a match, it suggests that 70,000 people think they are on to a good thing. Add a near full house for that remarkable win over Ireland and even 50,000-plus for Italy and you can see where the Scots are coming from.

Today at Murrayfield the game between the two teams that started the Six Nations Championship slowly, has the makings of being the tie of the penultimate round.

To add a little extra spice – were it needed – Scott Johnson, the man who, in three games, seems to have transformed Scottish fortunes, was once coach of Wales and until a year ago was in charge of the most successful Welsh regional side, the Ospreys.

“This is not about me,” insisted Johnson when he announced his side this week. Thousands of Scots would disagree because he has already given them back-to-back wins in the championship for the first time in a decade and if he manages to beat Wales it will be three in a row for the first time in the professional era.

The results, bar the opening-day drubbing at Twickenham, have been eye-opening if contrasting: the backs scoring four tries against Italy while the forwards were key to a remarkable performance against Ireland where they won 12-8 despite being eight points down and stuck in their own half for 75 per cent of the game.

How did they do it? By going back to basics, doing the simple things well and eschewing the fashionable off-loading game espoused by their previous coach, Andy Robinson.

“I haven’t got a bad word to say about Andy,” says Jim Hamilton who makes his 44th appearance for Scotland today, “but we’re playing the way now that suits Scotland. We couldn’t go on the way we were, because it wasn’t working. Results showed that. We’ve stripped it back to basics. We’re a team of big lads, we’re naturally physical.

“We tried running the ball, off-loading but we’re a team that doesn’t score many tries – unless it’s against Italy and they weren’t structural tries, they were tries off pressure and intercepts. We’ve realised what’s important to our game.”

Hugely dominant

Amid the mass of statistics showing Irish domination of possession and territory (at one point Ireland had made 37 carries to Scotland’s three) the pack claimed at least parity in the scrum – it looked more – and were hugely dominant in the lineout.

If that is down to Hamilton, who stole several of Ireland’s throw-ins, then he is quick to praise coach Dean Ryan. “He has a similar outlook to me,” says Hamilton.

“Rugby’s a simple game and that’s how he brings it across to the guys. He understands that it wasn’t just winning four lineouts, but the way the lineout was influencing other parts of the game.”

As always the set-piece will be key to today’s outcome and even without Gethin Jenkins Wales could be a handful in the scrum. Jenkins is replaced at loosehead by Paul James while the number seven shirt, if not the captain’s armband, is returned to Sam Warburton.

Hamilton will also have the experienced trio of Ian Evans, Alun Wyn Jones and Ryan Jones to jump against, but an awful lot depends on how Duncan Weir handles his first start at outhalf if Scotland are to end the run of five consecutive Welsh wins against them.

Guardian Service