Twickenham match:Jim Hamilton, with an accent more West Midlands than West Lothian, will be familiar to at least four of his England opponents when he takes the field for Scotland in Saturday's Calcutta Cup at Twickenham.
The Leicester lock played in the same England Under-19 side as Tigers scrumhalf Harry Ellis. He will also have some useful inside knowledge about the throwing into the lineout of another club-mate, George Chuter. Opposing him in the lineout will be two other Tigers, "good mate" Louis Deacon and England's erstwhile captain Martin Corry.
"I can't really describe how I'll feel on Saturday," said Hamilton yesterday. "There'll be a lot of emotion and it feels a bit surreal at the moment. A year or so ago I never imagined I'd be playing at Twickenham for Scotland and feeling really proud."
The 24-year-old, who attended the same Coventry school, Coundon Court, as Neil Back and Leicester clubmate Leon Lloyd, qualifies for Scotland through his Glasgow-born father. He made his debut in the autumn Tests against Romania and Australia but, while he may be familiar to his Leicester club-mates, he is not yet a permanent fixture in the Premiership and there may be one or two raised eyebrows at the fact he keeps Scotland's most experienced forward, Scott Murray, on the bench this weekend.
Scotland's coach Frank Hadden, though, has no doubt Hamilton, at 18st and 6ft 8in, will be a perfect foil to the similarly proportioned lock Alastair Kellock for what Scotland anticipate will be a physical encounter.
"I make a distinction between a number four and a number five and Jim Hamilton and Nathan Hines were contesting the number five shirt," said Hadden, who has lost Hines through injury and has been forced to give Six Nations debuts to four forwards.
Hadden has not included Allister Hogg, the flanker whose backrow play contributed so much to last year's 18-12 win over England. Hogg is on the bench after suffering medial knee ligament damage while making a comeback from a shoulder injury last November. Kelly Brown keeps his place at number seven.
Chris Cusiter makes a comeback at scrumhalf after dislocating his shoulder following a late tackle in last autumn's win over the Pacific Islanders.
