Jim Hamilton: "We're better than in 2010, but winning is harder" DUBLIN has a great feel to it, a great passion for rugby and is a fantastic city when the RBS Six Nations comes around. But I have experienced some extremes in this place. In my first international in this fair city four years ago I left the field not long after I'd entered it and in the most embarrassing way possible - on that daft golf buggy thing. I had been trapped at the bottom of a maul that collapsed and Irish bodies fell on top of my leg and the ankle went - broken bone, ligaments ripped. It was agony. But then, two years ago, I returned with Scotland and we enjoyed one of our greatest days in an international jersey. Ireland were geared up for the Triple Crown; their championship not great but a Triple Crown would see them off nicely. The streets were packed, Croke Park was full and had a tremendous atmosphere, an expectation. Then we turned up, played well and in the final minutes Dan Parks stepped up to the plate and, with the wind swirling and the rain coming down, he delivered a great kick from the left touchline that sealed a first win in Ireland for 12 years. Now we are back and the team is probably performing better than then, but everyone is performing better and winning is harder. Ireland in Dublin is never easy and while they are not where they'd want to be in this championship, I remember how they played against Australia in the World Cup and know their strength. At times like this you don't want to say much. I am quite a quiet person, and spend a lot of time before the game sleeping - so does big Richie [Gray]; it must be a big man thing. It has been interesting writing a column, putting my thoughts down on paper, when usually I prefer to keep them to myself. But I appreciate the support from The Scotsman readers, who I'm finding are very knowledgeable about their rugby and very passionate. It does not matter what I write; it's what we do on the pitch tonight that counts. But there has been much written about Ireland coming into this off the back of two games, and that will tell if we make it tell, but I have played for Gloucester or Scotland every weekend recently too. The Premiership is not quite the same and I was glad that it was a muddy arm-wrestle when I went on for the second half on Saturday, rather than a fast-paced game of sprints. It was frustrating, of course, to get spanked by my old club Leicester, but it just adds fuel to the fire this week and the desire to win. The one thing that is really encouraging getting back to the Scotland squad is that despite the fact we haven't won for five games, the morale is still strong. There is no dip in enthusiasm or togetherness; no factions or moans about team-mates or coaches. There is a great belief that we are on the right road, helped by the positive messages from supporters, many of whom will have spent a lot of money to travel and support the team again this weekend. Your support is huge for us, especially when we hear the singing or "Scotland, Scotland" ringing out during the game. It lifts you. The enthusiasm and attitudes of the young guys who have come in and settled very quickly is another big plus, and you feed off that too. We had a great run-out this week against the under-20s in training, which really opened my eyes to the quality we have coming through. It was amazing to see Richie's brother, Jonny. I could not believe that he was just 17, not just because of his size but his ability. I chatted to Richie yesterday about him and he said: "Jim, you wouldn't believe how strong he is." It is great to see another Gray talent, but hopefully his development will slow down just a little, until I retire anyway! Harry Leonard, the stand-off, was another who stood out. It was a great session for them, I hope, and for us. It just adds to the belief that Scotland is moving forward, and sends a warning to every player that if you don't perform now, and start getting the wins, there are more kids like young Hoggy [Stuart Hogg] on our tails. Not a bad idea by the boss that session. We all know what we need - the taste of victory. We had good analysis this week on the faults in our game. Defence has not been good enough and we have to tighten up on the missed tackles, because that let Wales in and allowed France to bounce back when we had them on the ropes. We struggled in the scrum latterly against the French and we have worked again on that this week. We have the boys and the power in the pack to do well, but it's about being switched on at every single scrum. It is funny that the lineout hasn't been going that well in training, but we always step up at the captain's run and it clicks in games, and the stats show that we have the best lineout in the championship. As the man calling the shots I take a lot from that, but it means little when we don't win. It will mean nothing if we drop off this weekend, so we have to really nail the Irish pack at scrum and lineout. They have been forced into changes, and any team would miss Paul O'Connell, Sean O'Brien and Conor Murray, but they have such quality in reserve that it doesn't make it easier. It is easy to talk about winning, but harder to achieve and going to Dublin to kick-start your championship does not rank among the simple challenges in life. They have the best defence around at the moment, they are perfecting the "choke" tackle and making it tough to keep the speed of ball that teams need to attack, and they have a dose of British and Irish Lions. But we beat them two years ago, we should have beaten them last year and we beat them in the World Cup warm-ups, and we know that if we perform the way we did in the first 20 minutes against France and keep it going tonight for the full 80 we can beat them again. The key is getting quick ball, playing with pace and keeping switched-on. Do that and, hopefully, we will all be celebrating in Dublin again tonight.