Doddie’s Cardiff memory is saving £4,000 at pool!
Doddie Weir will be guest of honour in Cardiff when Scotland kick off their autumn Test campaign against Wales on Saturday.
The 61-cap Scotland and Lions legend was diagnosed with motor neurone disease 16 months ago and, in recognition of his services to the game, the teams will be competing for the Doddie Weir Cup.
“That’s very kind of them because I’m still here, and normally you get that honour when you’re not here!” laughs Doddie, 48.
“The Principality Stadium is very daunting – anything away from home is daunting – because the Welsh are very passionate, like the Scots, about their rugby.
“When there’s a lot of noise, it rebounds on to the field, and we had an example with that at Murrayfield in the olden days against England.
“It got so noisy that you couldn’t hear the lineout codes on the field.
“Both Scottish pro teams are playing well, and with any luck the boys can bring this cup back to Murrayfield.
“And Hamilton & Inches (the jewellers) have done an absolutely fantastic job in making it with some big handles to emulate my massive ears!”
Doddie played Wales eight times and had a 50% win ratio that would be the envy of the current crop.
“My stats against England are not very clever – played eight, won none – so 50% is not bad because Wales had some pretty good players, as they have now.
“We thoroughly enjoyed playing against the Welsh because they played a similar way to us, and we had a great time off the field, which was quite special!
“That’s been a story of my life, the enjoyment away from the actual rugby.
“When we were amateur, we’d meet up on a Wednesday night, we’d have a few social shandies – because that’s good for team unity – and we’d play on the Saturday.
“That would be frowned upon now.”
Asked for his memories of Cardiff, which included a thrilling 16-14 win in 1996, Doddie insists that he’s never looked back, only forward.
But he says: “The only thing I remember about Cardiff is playing Kenny Milne at pool in the hotel, and he absolutely hammered me.
“It was double or quits, and I was £4,000 down at one stage. Luckily I won the next game!”
Doddie won’t be the only man on familiar ground in Cardiff. New Scotland forwards coach, Danny Wilson, has been involved with three of the four Welsh pro teams, and was head coach of the Cardiff Blues until this summer.
“I said to my wife: ‘You’re not going to believe who the first game is against’!” laughs Wilson, who had signed on at Wasps until Gregor Townsend’s call.
“I coached a lot of their players, individually and collectively, when I was with the Wales Under-20s, and then through the regional coaching. Now I’m going to be coaching against them.
“There are two sides to the coin. There are bits and pieces about them I’m aware of but there’s also a group of people who know a huge amount about me as a coach as well.” ▪ My Name’5 Doddie: The Autobiography, is available now in all good bookshops.