Duncan Weir ready to "grasp every opportunity" at Warriors this season

That aside, however, the veteran fly-half is eagerly looking forward to the season ahead, his fourth since he returned to his hometown club for a second stint in 2021.

If there were a few eyebrows raised at the 33-year-old earning a contract extension towards the end of last season, Weir plans on earning every last penny of that, whether starting games, appearing as a substitute or even helping others around him with their preparations.

The former Celtic youth academy prospect borrows a football term to insists his legs haven’t gone after 15 years as professional rugby player and believes he still offers head coach Franco Smith a viable option at no. 10 alongside recent recruit Adam Hastings and last year’s incumbent Tom Jordan.   

“Nothing changes for me,” he insists. “I'll try and grasp every opportunity that comes my way. I'm still hungry and determined to play as many minutes as possible. Even if that's coming off the bench, I'll do whatever I can to get the team over the line.

“If that's training against them during the week and making sure the levels of the opposition plays and training sessions are as high as possible for the team to be in a better place come the weekend, then I'm more than happy to do that.

“I'm big enough and ugly enough to have these so-called awkward conversations with coaches! I'm still fully determined to play my best rugby. I feel good physically. I feel like I'm in a really good place with the coaches as well. I've got a good relationship with them all. I feel valued at the club, even if it is to take that role of not being selected and pushing standards at training.

“If that's the case, then I know that Franco and the other coaches are really valuing my input. If that's my week’s job for the week, equally if they give me the licence to go and start a game, I know that they still fully back me. I feel valued within the building. It's hugely exciting. It's going to be a great year.”

Weir is effectively in with the bricks at Scotstoun, the only person to have had a playing role in the club’s two major victories in 2015 and 2014. That latter URC success will be marked with a civic reception at Glasgow City Chambers on Wednesday before thoughts turn to the year ahead when the expectation will be that Warriors either emulate or surpass that achievement.

“It's a really cool thing that we're doing the civic reception,” added Weir. “It's really nice to get that recognition outside that rugby community. It's definitely nice of them to put it on for us. It shows that more sports [outside of football] should get recognised.

“But now we're obviously going to be the biggest scalp of every team’s calendar, knocking off the champions. But we know what it took to get those wins.

“We know the dark place that you need to go to. I know it's quite cliched when people are talking about you need to go to the dark place to go and achieve something.

“But it shows that we can go there and come out the other end of it. It showed in the nature that we went and won the championship. The sheer physicality level that we went to is a benchmark of where we want to kick on this season.”

This campaign didn’t get off to the best start, however, with that pummelling in Parma with Weir at the helm. In mitigation it was the first hit-out of pre-season with most of the team’s recognised star names left at home.

“We’re frustrated about not getting things clicking as best we could but it was a really good opportunity for young boys to get their first taste of professional rugby,” explained Weir. “I think it's probably a good couple of levels above their A-game quality and their under-20 games, with the sheer physicality of the Zebre side.

“So, credit to them. I thought Zebre played really well. They look like they're strong going into this season. It’s probably a good game to get some learning out of the way.

"We've trying to add more strings to our bow and keep developing. So, it was a good thing to probably not have your best game, to iron out the creases and those little aspects of the game that we're trying to develop. And yeah, just a typical first pre-season game, a lot of rust, a few unforced errors and stuff like that, which hopefully we can learn of.”

A delayed flight home meant Weir missed team-mate Matt Fagerson’s wedding plus the Old Firm match, the latter a blessing in disguise for this dyed-in-the-wool Rangers fan.

“It was a good one to miss, thankfully, as a Rangers fan,” he added. “There's a bit of gulf there between the two sides at the minute. That defeat was a better pill to swallow after our result as well.

“It wasn’t a great weekend all round but my club side, Glasgow Accies, at least got wins for both their first and second teams. So, I'll take 2-2 on the scoreline for the weekend's sports results!”