JIM HAMILTON, the veteran forward, believes he can win an RBS 6 Nations title with Scotland before he retires.
Scott Johnson's side have won just one of their four matches so far this season, as they prepare to face Wales in Cardiff on Saturday in their final game.
They were labelled the worst ever Scotland team by the former England manager Sir Clive Woodward after their 20-0 humiliation at the hands of the Auld Enemy at Murrayfield. But Hamilton sees progress after the Scots came within 90 seconds of beating France last weekend when Jean-Marc Doussain's late penalty stole a 19-17 victory for Les Bleus in Edinburgh. Hamilton, 31, knows time is running out for him to claim a Six Nations winner's medal but is not giving up hope yet.
The Montpellier lock said: "We've had to go to some dark places, especially after the England game. We know we didn't play well. It was a shocking day at the office.
"We have had to believe in what we are doing to come out of those places and the coaches certainly believe in where we are going.
"We've isolated ourselves in the squad so we can stick together and make sure we keep everything in-house, pulling in the same direction. You could see in certain aspects of the France game that we are definitely going in the right direction. Maybe a lot of supporters are getting sick of hearing that but as players we want that consistency and we want to win games.
"I am getting on a bit now and my ambition before I finish playing is to win a championship. I wouldn't keep coming back, leaving my two kids and wife at home in France, if I didn't believe in this squad.
"I genuinely believe we are getting closer to the point where we can challenge. I know people have heard it all before but if we keep putting in performances like we did against France and keep believing in what we are doing, there are a lot of young players in this squad who can take us there."
Tim Swinson's foul on Alexandre Flanquart as the clock was ticking down against the French led to Scotland conceding their 50th penalty of the tournament, more than any other country involved.
Johnson, the Scotland head coach, claimed he was concerned by that statistic but Hamilton refused to criticise referees.
"No-one ever agrees with the ref if you lose. If you win, you say he's done an alright job," he said.
"It's not about bagging the ref. They are their own people. They are not going to have the same views on all the permutations of the game. Some will see a scrum go down and let us carry on, others will ping it.
"We have to adapt to that. It's the same for both sides and I'm not going to say the referee is the reason for us not winning.
"We were comfortable against France at times and we have only ourselves to blame."
Hamilton is confident Scotland can shake off last Saturday's disappointment to win in the Millennium Stadium.
He said: "Going down to Wales will be tough. They are the reigning champions, a fantastic team. The Millennium Stadium is an unbelievable place to play in.
"But we are going down there with the mindset of winning the game. That's all we can do. We are disappointed with result last Saturday but will go to Wales and give it our best shot."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article