full-time. For the 1996–7 season the club took the new name of Newcastle Falcons and gained promotion. The following season the club won their first Premiership title. In August 2000 he was named as Newcastle Falcon's captain for the forthcoming season. He captained the team that was victorious in the 2001 Anglo-Welsh Cup final. He played 97 matches for the club. He featured for the Barbarian F.C. invitational side on six occasions, making his debut against Newport in 1992 and captaining the club on his final appearance against the Combined Services in 2002. In February 2002, the Falcons announced that Weir, Gary Armstrong and George Graham would all leave the club at the end of the season to join the newly reformed Borders Rugby team. Weir remained with the Borders team until his retirement from professional rugby. Weir and Armstrong finished their playing career at the Border Reivers in May 2004. International career He had one solitary cap for Scotland B against Ireland B on 9 December 1989. The Herald columnist Brian Meek wrote: "Melrose's Doddie Weir still looks like he should eat more porridge, but his jumping and catching are a joy to watch... and he gets about." Weir's first senior appearance for Scotland was on 10 November 1990 against at Murrayfield Stadium. A mainstay of the team throughout the 1990s, he was a fan favourite of the Murrayfield crowd. His first Rugby World Cup was in 1991, where Scotland lost in the third-place play-off to New Zealand. In March 1993, he was drafted in to Scotland's Sevens team for the Hong Kong Sevens when Iain Morrison sustained an injury. He played in the 1995 Rugby World Cup and in the quarter finals scored two tries against New Zealand. He is the only Scot to have scored 2 tries against New Zealand. By the end of 1996 he was Scotland's most capped forward, but was left out of Scotland's squad against Italy. He scored a try against France at Murrayfield in the Five Nations on 1 March 1997. In 1997 he was the first recipient of the Famous Grouse Scotland Player of the Five Nations Award. He was once described by commentator Bill McLaren as being "On the charge like a mad giraffe". A lineout specialist, he was selected as part of the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 1997. Whilst on the tour he suffered