There was a sense of déjà view when 117 members gathered for the penultimate Lunch of the year. Gavin Scott had been forced to withdraw because of an urgent SRU commitment and the Committee found itself once again having to pull a rabbit out of the hat at short notice. Duncan Weir, the popular Scottish international and Glasgow Warrior fly half stepped into the breech without, in his own words, quite knowing what he was letting himself in for! In the event, it was a triumph for both parties. The assembled GROGs loved the easy style in which this “Cambuslang boy” described his rugby journey and Duncan (or Dunky as the Chairman insisted on calling him) seemed to enjoy being there. Duncan started his rugby career with Cambuslang RFC at the age of 7, where he had the “best first experience” of rugby he could have wished for. He ended up playing for the 1st. XV but a serious knee injury (gruesomely described) put an end to his Cambuslang career. This start to his rugby life laid the foundations of the rugby ethos and special bonds which are still very much part of his life. He started playing again with Glasgow Hawks and Scotland representative teams. When he moved to Glasgow Warriors as a professional, Duncan had feared nothing, not even Ronan O’Gara, whose social graces he didn’t rate highly, and he wishes he could be as cavalier now as he was back then! We admired the honesty of his ‘hero to zero’ story when he recounted his match winning drop kick against Italy in 2014 and his hash of a pass against France the following week. He now preaches consistency. We heard of “special coach” Vern Cotter’s severe training methods, including freezing in the Pyrenees and killing rabbits for food. All very entertaining! Duncan described his time at Edinburgh when he was an “angry wee man” as not being a happy time but when he transferred to Worcester everything settled for him again. We got an honest insight into the dark time he experienced when he returned to Warriors and needed the help of a sports psychologist and we were pleased to hear that all is well again. Duncan Weir was one of our most popular speakers who gave of himself in an honest, informative and entertaining way and who more than deserved our thanks and a bottle of Special GROGS Whisky.