'So f***in' proud to be associated with someone like Freddie Burns'

Ex-Scotland international Jim Hamilton has provided a compelling account of his emotions while watching two of his former clubs Leicester and Saracens duke it out in last weekend’s Gallagher Premiership final which was decided by a last-gasp drop goal from his good pal, Tigers’ Freddie Burns. The 39-year-old Hamilton played off the bench for Leicester in the 2006 final before appearing for Saracens as a replacement in the 2015 and 2016 deciders.

Those allegiances meant he was heavily caught up in last weekend’s Twickenham showpiece and the energy he felt watching Burns celebrate the decisive Leicester score left him remembering something once said to him by Dean Ryan when the ex-England international was coaching Scotland. 

Hamilton ran through his gamut of emotions on this week’s edition of The Rugby Pod, the show he co-hosts with Andy Goode, another ex-player who ironically also had spells playing for the two clubs that contested the 2021/22 English league final. 

Here is what Hamilton made of it all: “That is as emotional as I have ever been watching a rugby game. I was meant to be at the final but I didn’t get there for travel reasons. I’m sitting in a mate’s gaff watching and the emotion, especially towards the end of the game with Freddie Burns on, it’s real. 

“The emotion to play in a final, not just to play in a final whether it is 20 seconds, half an hour, 80 minutes, extra time, to play in a final and win it, that feeling… Dean Ryan said something as a Scotland to me and then he said it to the team. Dean Ryan, the most successful Scotland coach of any Six Nations, we finished a comfortable third. He said, ‘How hard are you willing to work for that 30 seconds of euphoria?’

“And this comes down to watching my mate Brett (Deacon) go through what he has gone through as a professional coach (with Leicester), how hard (Steve) Borthwick has worked them this year and all those emotions coming back in. I played for Saracens in the final against Exeter (in 2016) and I personally have an involvement in that game, sacked a maul, the winning turnover of the game and we won. That euphoria, that 30 seconds or a minute or whatever it is, when that was happening last weekend I thought back to what Dean Ryan had said. 

“I thought to myself this feeling, I’m getting goosebumps talking about it now, is something that most people don’t experience and probably will never happen again. It happened a couple of times after but I didn’t play personally a part as much as I did in that(2016)  game. How hard are you willing to work for that 30 seconds of euphoria? 

“So for me personally watching that final and watching Freddie Burns’ emotion and Leicester and everything that they have been through, it brought things back for me because I don’t really go back at nostalgia, I look forward. Being a final, I had played for both clubs, had played in finals for both clubs, and it personally brought back emotions of actually how big a deal it is. 

“Winning the Premiership is a hard slog, the number of games you have to play and all the other games, but you saw that vibration shaking from Freddie, that euphoria that Dean Ryan said at Scotland. It’s almost impossible to explain what that feeling is like. You talk about Freddie being hight than high, there ain’t a word for it. 

“I was watching those scenes at the end and when that drop-kick went over and I was, ‘I am so fuckin’ proud to be involved in this game and to be associated with someone like Freddie Burns because he embodies what rugby should be’. Rugby is the ultimate team sport, a sport for anyone, for all walks of life.”