Pete Horne says he is looking forward to seeing a permanent tribute to Doddie Weir being unveiled at some point in the hopefully near future, following the former Scotland forward’s death on Saturday at the end of a brave five-and-a-half-year battle against the ravaging effects of Motor Neurone Disease.
A campaign has been launched calling for one of the stands at Murrayfield Stadium to be re-named in the great man’s memory, with an online petition attracting several thousand signatures. The erection of a statue has also been mooted as an appropriate way to celebrate and commemorate Weir’s life and many achievements as a player, a personality and an activist in the battle against Motor Neurone Disease.
“He’ll be sorely missed, but his legacy will live on forever, and I’m sure some kind of tribute to him will be in the pipeline,” said Horne. “He was just such a special man and character. When he entered a room, he just filled it with his presence.
“He was inspirational with the way he battled on. He was so selfless, even though the disease was attacking him for so long, he just kept fighting it, to raise awareness and raise all the money he did for charity.
“His reach stretches so far, not just in rugby, but just society as a whole. I’m sure some kind of tribute will happen, and it’ll be great to see.”
Meanwhile, Horne revealed that Warriors and Scotland stand-off Ross Thompson is facing a lengthy injury lay-off with an ankle injury suffered during the final 10 minutes of the club’s loss away to Leinster last weekend.
“He’s had a scan and an x-ray, and unfortunately it’s fractured,” explained Horne. “We don’t have a timeframe yet. We’ll know more about it later this week.
It is a rotten piece of luck for the 23-year-old playmaker who missed the start of this season with Warriors due to back surgery during the summer, and was then an unused replacement for Scotland against Australia at the start of the recent Autumn Test series before dropping out of the international match-day squad altogether for the three subsequent matches.
“He’s had a wee bit of a rough time and been really unlucky with some of the injuries he’s picked up, but it’ll help him grow stronger as a player ultimately,” added Horne. “He’s basically had a meteoric rise since he came in, so the setbacks can be tougher to swallow, but I’m sure he’ll come back stronger in the long run and be better for it.”
Warriors head to Parma this weekend to take on Italian strugglers Zebre, who are bottom of the United Rugby Championship table with a record of zero wins from eight matches played so far in the 2022-23 campaign. it should be a fairly routine assignment for the Scottish side, but their record of ten league defeats away from home on the bounce means that it is far from a foregone conclusion.
The team’s most recent away loss was against Leinster in Dublin on Saturday, which Horner acknowledged was a very frustrating experience but also, he insisted, offered glimpses of better days ahead.
‘It was a bit gutting in the end – but, in terms of performance, I do think it was a massive step up from the other games,” he said. “The likes of the Ospreys and Benetton games, we barely fired a shot. It wasn’t even like we were that tough to beat. Whereas, against Leinster we created opportunities but just didn’t take them.
“That’s disappointing and we’re not trying to sugar-coat anything, but it does give us confidence that we are making progress.
“We will be expected to go over to Zebre and win, everyone is aware of that, so there’s a bit of pressure – but these guys are used to dealing with pressure all the time,” he added.
“It’s a challenge, but one the boys will take head-on. There’s just such a desire in the group to go and get a win away from home.
“At home we can be dynamite, smashing teams and blowing them awa. We just can’t put our finger on why it’s not quite clicked away from home. We just need a spark.”
