STEWART Hamilton -- big and bluff, no frills, likes the odd cigar, and
an occasional glass of the amber nectar -- will be out there for
Stirling County against Edinburgh Academicals at Raeburn Place today
giving his all, as he has done for more years than he cares to remember.
Big Hammy, for whom the big four-oh beckons in February, is the
godfather of premiership rugby, and at a time of life when most players
have long since traded the rigours of the top-grade game for the
committee room or a spot of punditry on Rugby Special, he is still
there, Saturday in and Saturday out, competing with the young bloods who
weren't even born when he came, late, to the game as a 22-year-old.
But Hamilton, the purveyor of farm equipment who starts his own
business in Stirling on Wednesday, is still earning his corn as a
hard-grafting lock with County, the club he has served -- barring three
seasons with Heriot's FP in the mid-eighties -- since enlisting with
them from that hot-bed of rugby, Larkhall, almost 18 years ago.
''There wasn't much rugby played in Larkhall,'' he says, with just a
hint of understatement, ''but being in the farm-equipment business I was
mixing with farmers and it was Muff Scobie and Hamish Logan who said
that, with my size, I should be playing rugby.''
So much has changed since County were beginning their climb from the
nether regions of Division 6 and Hamilton has played through them all.
Regrets? He has a few.
Most notably, the fact that after two 'B' caps against France, in 1986
and '87, he just couldn't make that final leap towards a full cap.
''That remains a major regret. I felt at the time that I was capable of
playing for Scotland. When I saw the likes of Jeremy Campbell-Lamerton
getting a cap, I just knew that I was a better player but I didn't get
the final nod.
''That was why I went to Heriot's. I got a phone call from Andy
Irvine. He was obviously a rugby hero and when somebody like Irvine
rings you up and asks if you'd like to come down to Goldenacre, then
you'd be daft to say no.
''I was loyal to Stirling, just as I am now, but I was loyal to
myself, too, and I really wanted that cap. Stirling were stuck in the
second division and I reckoned that first-division rugby would give me
the final boost I needed.''
There have been compensations but Hamilton doesn't try to kid on that
they make up for not playing for Scotland. ''I've played in district
championship sides with Edinburgh and Glasgow, and this season I'll be
trying to make it a hat trick with North and Midlands.
''And, of course, the greatest compensation of all was captaining
Stirling to the championship last season. I couldn't even begin to tell
you how sweet that was.''
Hamilton, just a sliver short of 6ft 4in. and still tipping the scales
at the 18st he did as a 22-year-old, reckons that players are now more
dedicated and committed than they were when he was starting out.
He believes, too, that the game is not as physical as it was when he
was learning his craft at the coal-face of lineout and scrum. ''There
aren't the really hard men around now that there used to be. When I was
at Heriot's and we were playing the likes of Hawick, there were maybe
half-a-dozen characters who could put the fear of death into you.
''Maybe they're still around and they just don't put the fear of death
into me any longer but I don't think so. There were some hard nuts
playing in the early and mid-eighties. The game has progressed, the laws
have changed, and there doesn't seem to be any time for the battles that
used to break out all over the place.
''There's a metre between the forwards at the lineouts now and that's
where most of the battles used to break out. It's difficult to give your
opposite number a skelp when there's all that space between you. Mind
you, the good news is that he can't skelp you either.''
After Stirling's championship win last season Hamilton had hinted that
he might retire from top-flight rugby and yet he is still there and
happy in his work.
''A couple of weeks ago we had a 16-year-old playing for us against
Hawick. I'm old enough to be his father and I don't recognise that many
people on the team bus, right enough, but I don't feel my age when I'm
out there on the pitch.
''I've promised my elder son, Gregor, who is 12 and a centre for his
school side at Dollar Academy, that one day we'll both play in the same
side. Obviously that won't be first XV rugby but I'm not hanging up the
boots until that promise has been fulfilled.
''So far as retirement from top-grade rugby is concerned, I've told
the club that I'm more than happy to soldier on until they find a
replacement. I wouldn't begrudge any youngster coming into the side and
taking my place if the club felt he was good enough.
''After that I'll keep playing for fun and until Gregor and me have
run out on to the park together. But, hopefully, I've still got a good
few games in me before then,'' he declares.
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