My Life in Rugby: Scott Hamilton – former All Blacks and Leicetser wing

The main reason I made the All Blacks team in 2006 was because I was in such a great Crusaders team. The Blues and the Hurricanes had just as skillful a team back then, if not more so, but we had an intangible quality, to do with our spirit and culture, that gave us an edge.
Players like Todd Blackadder and Reuben Thorne weren’t the flashiest but their influence on the team was immense and they were hugely respected. Richie McCaw was the same – he’d take all sorts of punishment yet never lost his cool.
We had a laugh when the time was right but also knew when to crack on, winning three Super Rugby titles. Personally, 2005 was the best of the lot. Rico Gear was scoring tries for fun on one wing and myself and Caleb Ralph took it in turns on the other. Scoring a hat-trick in the semi-final win against the Hurricanes is something I’ll never forget. Only two years earlier, I had run out for my Canterbury debut and someone shouted, ‘Hey, who are you, number 22?’.
Straight after the 2006 final – the fog bowl final, where I could barely see a thing and could only judge the flight of the ball from the length of Dan Carter’s follow through – Robbie Deans pulled me to one side and told me I’d made it into the All Blacks squad for the tour to Ireland and Argentina.
I was ecstatic anyway, having won my second final, but that topped it off. I played in two Tests against Argentina and South Africa but when Sitiveni Sivivatu returned to fitness that was that.
All in, I had six great years at the Crusaders, completing a hat-trick of titles in 2008. I also won a couple of NPC titles and Ranfurly Shields in a superb Canterbury team.
Stade Francais and Munster had shown interest but I decided to join Leicester because Heyneke Meyer was there – I didn’t know he wouldn’t be around long. I arrived at the end of November and it was full-on then right up until the end of May when we lost to Leinster at Murrayfield and then beat London Irish in the Premiership final. While the season was way too long for my liking, one of the things I loved about English rugby was those days out at Twickenham when the fans are there early in all their colours to greet you off the bus. It’s not quite the same back home.
Luckily for me, I’d swapped one trophy-winning team for another and I got to experience two more finals. I was travelling reserve in the Northampton win but played a full part when we beat Saracens a few years before. Glen Jackson had just put them in the lead but Toby Flood put the restart my way and luckily their second row misread the flight of the ball and it landed in my arms instead. I had bad cramp and could barely run but managed to pass to Dan Hipkiss who ran a good line for the try.
Like the Crusaders, Leicester had the right balance between working hard and having fun. Laughs were never too far away when Julian Salvi and Ben Youngs were around. Those two are what I’d call rugby-smart but not the brightest in other ways.
Julian once went left instead of right in the tunnel under the main stand as he prepared to lead the team out as captain. Despite a big sign saying, ‘pitch this way,’ we nearly ended up in the car park.
The friendships you make and the good times you have are hard to replace once your career is over, but I’m still battling on as a player-coach at Hinckley having had a short spell at Coventry. As soon as I walked through the door at Hinckley, it reminded me of home and the ‘one-club’ philosophy where everyone is one and the same.
*As told to Jon Newcombe