TWO former Scotland team-mates of Doddie Weir spoke at the service, which was relayed live on the internet and to hundreds of people gathered in the rain at the Greenyards home of Melrose RFC.
Former Melrose player Carl Hogg delivered the eulogy, during which he detailed the mischievous sense of humour of Weir and close friend Gary Armstrong, who won the English Premiership title together at Newcastle in 1998.
“Doddie had an amazing life, it was action-packed, full of fun, lots of adventure and lots of love,” Hogg said.
“It’s been very emotional reading all the tributes and his campaigning for MND. Yet that’s only six years of an incredible life. As we all know, motor neurone disease didn’t define Doddie. It was just the last chapter and challenge he faced.
“He never questioned why, but instead felt the responsibility to make a difference. He considered himself fortunate to have the love and support of his family and friends. He used to say, ‘What about Mrs Smith in the tenement flat who isn’t as lucky as me?’”
Former Scotland captain Rob Wainwright, whose Doddie Aid mass participation events have themselves raised millions of pounds for MND research, talked about their international days.
Wainwright described Weir as being the centre of the fun off the park, detailing a night when his friend walked down the team bus despatching glasses of whisky from two bottles complete with optics from underneath his kilt.
Recalling a get-together with former team-mates two months ago, he added: “My final image is of a body shrunken by his condition but a character undiminished and the sparkle of his smile and warmth still shining out from his eyes.”
Weir’s three sons, Hamish, Angus and Ben, read a poem written by Timmy Douglas and entitled Requiem for Doddie (The Mad Giraffe), a reference to a memorable piece of commentary by Bill McLaren.
Among those attending were Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend and predecessors Sir Ian McGeechan and Frank Hadden.
A host of former Scotland players attended including brothers Scott and Gavin Hastings, Kenny Logan, Kelly Brown, Chris Paterson, Armstrong, John Barclay, plus present internationals Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson.
Former England internationals included Martin Johnson, Rob Andrew, Austin Healey and Bill Beaumont, the chairman of World Rugby.
Multiple Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist Sir Chris Hoy was also present.
Attendees were asked to wear tartan in tribute to Weir, who helped design his own pattern for his charity. An array of colours were on show with mourners wearing the likes of tartan scarves, shawls, trousers, kilts and suits.
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