Duncan Weir admits it was a no-brainer to sign a new deal with Glasgow Warriors which is likely to see him retire at his boyhood club.
The 33-year-old has agreed a new deal that will keep him at Scotstoun for at least another season and he’ll battle it out with Tom Jordan and the returning Adam Hastings for the No 10 shirt moving forward.
Youngster Richie Simpson is also an option and that competition is what led Ross Thompson to make the move across the country to Edinburgh last week.
There was no doubts from Weir about signing when the deal came to him though but he isn’t just sticking around to be a back up and watch on from the sidelines.
The contract renewal has been announced as a two-year deal but it’s understood the second of those years is an option for both Weir and Warriors. He doesn’t see himself stopping at the end of next season, though, and is already intending on sticking around for the following year as well.
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And he said: “It’s a one plus one deal – at my age it kind of goes by that book! The body still feels good so hopefully it’s another two years.
“As we all know it’s my boyhood club so it means a lot to me. I’m delighted that I’m staying on and hopefully we can keep building on the last couple of years.
“I’m expecting to have a similar role to what I’ve played this year. That could be like the recent Bulls game and coming on to change the game that way or if we’re winning and the game just has to be managed – I’ve got quite a lot of experience behind me now.
“But I absolutely love starting. I just love playing. That’s why I was keen to re-sign and keep going as I feel like I can add positively within the squad.
“That might be pushing standards at training or in a match. I’m still fully confident I can help the team in a positive way and that’s why I’m delighted to be staying on.
“Franco wanted me to stay when we had a discussion and for me that was enough. I feel valued that he has pushed for me to stay on and wanted me to be in the building. That filled me with real confidence and was enough for me to want to stay.”
Glasgow Warriors are a team that have threatened to be competitive in the latter stages of tournaments having reached the Challenge Cup Final last year and then looked on course to finish in the top two in the URC this season.
Back-to-back defeats in South Africa in recent weeks has hampered those hopes and it’s more likely they’ll only get a home quarter-final unless there’s some surprise results this weekend.
Weir reckons there’s similarities with the team from 2015 when they won the Pro12 title in Belfast, having lost in the final the year before and also had a couple of semi-final defeats to Leinster prior to that.
The similarities between the two sides go a long way for Weir and he believes the hurt from those defeats helped the 2015 team win, and it can be a similar story from last year’s Challenge Cup loss and the URC play-off defeat last season to Munster in the quarter-final.
And he added: “I think it’s getting close to the level of that 2015 squad when we won it. That was a special group of players. We’re very close to emulating that feeling now, albeit I’m now at the other end of the age bracket! Those times from 2013 to 2016 you felt that something was going to happen and it did. It does feel like that but we’re at the time of season now where we have to go and deliver. We’re still itching for that 80-minute performance.
“There have been times within the season where we’ve been outstanding and then you have other moments like that 12 minutes of madness against the Lions where we concede four tries.
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“We’re still striving for that perfect game and it’s going to be important going into the next couple of weeks that we don’t have to change much but we have to iron out some creases to make sure we bring the best Glasgow Warriors performance and not really worry about the opposition. If we nail our game then we’ll be there at the end of the match in terms of the scoreboard.
“We had the quarter-final of the URC last year, the Challenge Cup final and then the [last 16] tie of the European Cup this year and I think you need to have that feeling within a squad of what those weeks are like. When it’s new and raw within a squad it can eat away at you, nerves or whatever it is. That can distract you from playing your best game. In the quarter against Munster we didn’t have our best game and we were obviously really disappointed against Toulon.
“But even against Harlequins we were in it right until the last minute and that mentality has shifted in the right direction for me. We didn’t get it right on the end but we swung some punches which was a massive turnaround from the Toulon final in Dublin when we weren’t at the races across the board. But we’ve made strides on the mentality front since then.
“You have to be comfortable in those pressure games. In 2015 we had lost a final and semi-finals before then so eventually when the chance came up again we had full belief that we could go over there and do the job. And thankfully we did that.”
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