Everybody associated with Hawick Rugby Club, and indeed the whole town was stunned and greatly saddened at the news of Greig’s tragic passing. He came into the Mansfield set up via the PSA and the Trades, pinching himself to make sure he was really sitting in the same dressing room as Jim Renwick. Colin Deans and Alan Tomes and other boyhood heroes. He went on to play 336 games in the green jersey mostly as a combative scrum half but in the later stages of his career as full back opening the door for a young Kevin Reid to assume the number 9 jersey. He was very unlucky to be a contemporary of Roy Laidlaw then Gary Armstrong otherwise he would have won far more than the 3 caps that he did. However not many Scottish scrum halves could boast of scoring a try against the All Blacks. He became Hawick’s Assistant Coach to Ian Barnes in 2000 – good cop, bad cop! – and the following season led the Club to the treble of League, Cup and Border League. After his moving to Ireland we have watched his blossoming coaching career with interest. Although long in exile he kept in touch and always looked out for the Hawick score. “You could take the boy out of Hawick but you couldn’t take Hawick out of the boy”. It’s almost impossible to contemplate that we’ll never again see his cheeky grin. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family in Hawick and in Ireland. Thanks for the memories, Greig.
