The 'special' tribute Scotland want to pay to the late Doddie Weir
Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie is determined to get his hands on the Doddie Weir Cup on Saturday and make the former lock’s family proud by leading the national team to victory over Wales in their first home match since his death.
Weir lost his six-year battle with motor neurone disease on November 26, a week after the last Scotland outing at BT Murrayfield against Argentina and just a fortnight after he had presented the match ball ahead of the showdown with New Zealand.
The first Test match in Edinburgh since his passing is this weekend’s Guinness Six Nations showdown with Wales, a Scotland fixture for which the Doddie Weir Cup has been contested since 2018.
“It’s probably individual, like how they want to use that (Weir’s memory), but for me personally, the Doddie Cup is something that is special,” said Ritchie, who sported a My Name’5 Doddie Foundation hat when he faced the media at the national stadium on Friday.
“And especially in this game, the first one back at Murrayfield since he passed, it would be a nice one to get our hands on. We found Doddie, and we find his family, truly inspirational in the work that they have done and we want to make them proud of us.”
In addition to the emotional aspect surrounding Weir’s memory, Saturday’s match offers Scotland the chance to kick off the tournament with back-to-back victories for the first time since they won their opening three fixtures in the old Five Nations in 1996. On that occasion, a 25-year-old Weir and current head coach Gregor Townsend played their part in defeating Ireland away, France at home and Wales away.
The Scots pulled off a rousing 29-23 victory over England at Twickenham last Saturday and all week in the lead-up to this weekend’s Wales match they have been stressing the importance of not undoing all their good work from week one by falling flat immediately afterwards. “The mood’s good,” said Ritchie. “I’ve not looked at much of the media stuff so I’ve not seen the expectation.
“The group know there is a challenging game coming up but for us, it’s about improving on our performance from the England game and making sure we get all our bits right. After the game on Saturday, we got together in the huddle and said, ‘Look, this is a great win, enjoy this moment, but it’s about backing it up next week’.
“We knew we needed to make the right decisions around how we recover and things like that, and we needed to get everything out of training, making sure we did all our due diligence on Wales and making sure that, come tomorrow, we’re ready to start well.
“We know that winning one game is not enough for us. We want to do well, and like I said in the press before last weekend, what does a strong tournament look like for us? It’s five good performances. So one good performance isn’t good enough for us. We’re looking for another good performance tomorrow.”
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has made five changes to the side that lost 34-10 to Ireland in Cardiff last weekend. “It’s a different Wales side to last week and it will probably be a slightly different game,” said Ritchie. “The scoreline in that game probably doesn’t reflect the rest of it because it was obviously a really fast start from Ireland, but Wales certainly came back into it.
“Looking at the stats, there wasn’t much between the two teams. We need to be aware of that but also look at the opportunities within how they play for us and make sure we can exploit that and impose ourselves on them.
“I expect them to be up for it. They have picked (Tommy) Reffell and (Jac) Morgan, who are obviously threats over ball, so they will be looking to try and slow us up. They obviously see our speed as a threat, so we’ll be looking to try and bring that into the game.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Should've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
19 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
19 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
19 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
19 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
90 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
4 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
9 Go to comments