Scottish rugby centurion Lamont to retire

The 36-year-old - Scotland's third most-capped player behind Chris Paterson (109) and Ross Ford (107) - said he felt the time had come for him to hang up his boots.

"Unless they beg me to stay another year, I think I'm done," said Lamont, who plays his club rugby with Glasgow Warriors.

"I have had a great run and enjoyed every single moment, but it is time to step aside. I am not going to flog a dead horse, although some might say I've been two years dead anyway!

"I love the sport, I love being in it and I love the guys I work with. But I just don't have the gas anymore. I can't get through those holes I see. I can still truck it up a distance, but there is definitely a blunting of the axe."

Lamont, whose younger brother Rory also played for the Warriors and Scotland, but had to retire in 2013 having failed to recover properly from a broken leg, admitted the standard in the national side is such now that he would have trouble breaking into it.

"It is disappointing it is coming to the end, but I am 36 and I have done pretty well considering, when you look at the guys in the Scotland squad," said Lamont, who played his last Test for Scotland last year against Japan.

"Even if I was just arriving at my peak I don't think I would get in the current side."

Agence France-Presse