Borders rugby hero Craig Chalmers getting on bike for ex-team-mate Doddie Weir’s charity

The 54-year-old and colleagues of his at Portal Security’s London office, along with ex-Irish rugby international Rob Henderson, will be among nine riders hitting the road from Cardiff in Wales on Thursday, February 9, to Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium to deliver the match-ball for the Scots’ Six Nations match against the Welsh two days later, backed up by ex-England player Peter Winterbottom in a support truck.

It’s the same mission as that undertaken by a Selkirk-based team led by ex-Scotland skipper Rob Wainwright and featuring fellow former internationals Gordon Hunter, Graham Marshall and Iwan Tukalo last February, raising £18,000, but in reverse.

Chalmers, a member of the Scots’ 1990 grand slam-winning team, is hoping his ride will be followed by better fortune, however, as the match-ball delivered by the Souters was party to a 20-17 defeat at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, marking the start of a three-game losing streak in the championship for head coach Gregor Townsend’s side.

“I always fancy Scotland’s chances at the Six Nations,” said the 60-times-capped fly-half.

“We always hope, but it’s the hope that kills you, as they say.

“We’ve actually won our first game the last couple of years and then we’ve not won the second ones.

“I think we can win against England at Twickenham this time round, and if we do, we’ve got to back it up.

“Last year we beat England at Murrayfield, then went to Cardiff and lost. We should have won that game.

“It was the same the year before that. We beat England at Twickenham but then lost to Wales.”

Looking ahead to his cross-border bike ride, Chalmers, based in Surrey these days, said: “We’ve done a few different rides over the years for different causes and it’s the same guys that always get roped in.

“Some are colleagues as our company already sponsors the annual Doddie’s bike ride in Melrose and others are guys I know wanting to get involved.

“I’ll be trying to do as much of the route as possible. I’m looking forward to it. It should be good.

“I just hope the weather’s good. The weather’s a big thing. I hope we get a couple of decent days, hopefully with a tail-wind and not too much frost or snow.

“Hopefully I can get some training in over the next couple of weeks.”

“It was back in 2014 that we did our first one for Walking with the Wounded from Twickenham to Cardiff to Dublin to Murrayfield and we did one in tandems from Land’s End to John o’ Groats for the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation in 2018.”

Weir’s foundation is a cause close to Chalmers’ heart as their Scottish and Melrose careers overlapped almost exactly and he played alongside the late lock, killed by MND in November at the age of 52, dozens of times for their country.

“He came to Melrose as a youngster and I got my first cap in 1989 and he got his in 1990,” he recalled. “It was at the start of the grand slam campaign that he first came into the Scotland squad and he got his first cap against Argentina later that year.

“I got my last cap in 1999 and Doddie got his much the same time as I finished, the year after.

“He went to Newcastle Falcons in 1995 but we were at Melrose for a number of years together before that and we won championships there and stuff. We had some great times.

“It’s just so sad that he got that horrible disease.

“There’s stuff going on all over the place for Doddie’s foundation all the time and it’s created so much awareness of the disease and the rugby community has come together so well to support it. It’s a great community.

“We wish we weren’t doing it because we wish there was no such thing as MND or there was a cure or something to slow it down and make it less aggressive, but unfortunately that’s not the case.”

Chalmers and his fellow cyclists set themselves a fundraising target of £5,000 for their 555-mile ride but they’ve already smashed that, having passed the £6,000 mark. To boost that total further, go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/craigchalmers