Shock and sadness greets news that Doddie Weir has MND

It is a mark of the man that, when Doddie Weir confirmed the devastating news that he has motor neurone disease, he didn't make it about himself.
Doddie Weir in Five Nations action for Scotland against France at Murrayfield in 1998.Doddie Weir in Five Nations action for Scotland against France at Murrayfield in 1998.
Doddie Weir in Five Nations action for Scotland against France at Murrayfield in 1998.

Certainly not shy – in fact the garrulous, larger than life, room-dominating “mad giraffe” would be the polar opposite of that – he is at heart a self-effacing Borderer and his announcement released on Twitter yesterday was timed to promote MND awareness day, which is today, and was put out through the Euan MacDonald Centre for research into this dreadful disease. Currently on holiday in New Zealand enjoying the Lions tour with his wife, Kathy, and three teenage sons 
Hamish, Angus and Ben, Weir, who turns 47 next month, has vowed “to devote my time towards assisting research and raising awareness and funds to help support fellow sufferers”.

The sense of shock and sadness around the Scottish rugby family, wider country and the global game was palpable yesterday because the former lock is a universally loved and popular figure who has lit up the sport he adores so passionately with quirkiness, colour, humour and not a little skill since he burst onto the scene in the 1990s with Melrose and Scotland, before playing his part in the dawn of the professional era at Newcastle Falcons and having a painfully curtailed but memorable stint on the 1997 British and Irish Lions’ tour to South Africa.

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He may have emerged just after the epochal 1990 Grand Slam, making his Scotland debut against Argentina in the autumn of that year, but he wove himself into that legendary band of brothers and leading figures from that era led the expressions of sadness and support for their friend and former team-mate. Scott Hastings, whose mother-in-law died of the disease, revealed that he had been in “absolute tears” when Weir called him with the news.

“It is an awful, cruel disease,” Hastings told BBC Radio Scotland. “But Doddie, like the rest of his life, has approached everything with a real relish to challenge the disease. He’s one of the great characters of Scottish rugby.”

Grand Slam skipper David Sole, pictured left, said on Twitter: “Really sorry and sad to hear this news – will do anything to help big man.”

Weir’s great mate, Alan Tait, pictured right, with whom he played for Scotland, Newcastle and the 1997 Lions and shares a passion for country pursuits, said: “Doddie is probably the last of the amateur professionals and I say that in a respectful way. He was not one for the gym but he would win lineouts, get around the park, and he brought great fun to any squad.”

The world of rugby is still mourning the loss in February of South Africa’s World Cup-winning scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen, who died aged 45 of the same progressive, degenerative wasting disease.

Weir shared an international pitch with the former Springbok a couple of times in the 1990s and is sure to attract the same level of worldwide support for himself and the wider cause of trying to find some breakthrough in the fight against this awful condition.

I met Doddie just over a couple of months ago when he agreed to do a Saturday
Interview for this paper’s sport supplement for the day of the Melrose Sevens and he was on cracking form as ever.

These big interviews can sometimes be a bit of a headache to arrange, requiring, as they do, a good chunk of time for a proper in-depth conversation with 
people who are often busy.

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Arranging the whens, the wheres, co-ordinating with photographers and so on can often be tricky, but not with Doddie. “Whenever, wherever, for as long as you want me” was the general gist when contact was made and, in the end, he 
even came to meet me off the train at Tweedbank and drove me into Melrose for a fabulously entertaining lunch. Many moons ago I had lived in Galashiels while working for the Southern Reporter as a cub reporter and, after photos had been taken at the Greenyards, Weir then insisted on driving me back to Gala station rather than Tweedbank, only dropping me off after a whistle-stop driving tour of the town taking in some old haunts and an insistence that I showed him the exact flat I had lived in during my time there. A true 
gentleman.

And some player, too. He won 61 caps for Scotland and featured in three World Cups. In the 1995 quarter-final in Pretoria he even distinguished himself by outscoring the seemingly unstoppable Jonah Lomu. The late great All Blacks wing managed only one try against the Scots that day, compared with the four he would run in against England the following week, while Weir bagged a brace in the 48-30 loss. An act of knee-smashing thuggery ended his Lions tour prematurely in 1997 but herecovered to win the English league title with Newcastle Falcons the following year.

He may have had the spirit of an amateur but grasped the chance to leave Melrose and be paid to play the game he loved. “I’m a great believer in taking the opportunities life presents you with,” he told me in April.

Life has now presented him with a desperately unfair challenge. He will no doubt face it with his trademark positivity and will assuredly find no shortage of goodwill, love and support.