Cambuslang’s Duncan Weir, sidelined for a full season after a serious knee injury, has bounced back to take his place in Scotland 7s team heading for two legs of the IRB Sevens World Series in Wellington (5 & 6 February) and Las Vegas (13 & 14 February).

“It was a nice surprise to be selected and a great opportunity to play in Wellington and Las Vegas,”  said the 18 year old Hawks standoff.  “This is the first time I’ve been in the team.  I’ve never been that far away or to anything like this before and I’m sure I will learn and keep improving from the experience.”

Weir has made an incredible turnaround since a year ago.  “I snapped my anterior cruciate ligament when I was playing for the national academy Sevens team in Selkirk and was completely out for the whole 2009 season,” he remembers.

Supported by the West of Scotland Institute of Sport, part of sportscotland’s institute regional network which provides high performance expertise to Scotland’s potential world class talent, Duncan has access to essential support services locally in sports medicine, sports science, Strength and Conditioning, and career and lifestyle guidance.

“I got injured on Sunday afternoon and the Institute organised my operation on the Thursday, so it happened dead fast,” he said.  “I know boys who have been waiting for the same operation for six months so I had a successful rehab period where I didn’t do any more damage to it for seven months.

“In the gym I worked as much as I could on the hand bike and the Institute physio got me through it.  They give us a lot of attention, it’s good for improving your all round fitness and taking that on to the pitch improves you there as well.

“I had a good attitude, I tried to race back for the Scotland under 18s but unfortunately missed it., I took that season out completely just to get ready for this one because I knew it was going to be a big jump up in standard at club level.”

Not one to rest on his laurels, Duncan has re-emerged stronger from his time on the sidelines.

“It was frustrating, but I learnt a lot,” he said.  “When you can’t play you watch a lot and I learnt a huge amount from watching the. I just wanted to get back as soon as I could and play.

“Training has been tough this week to get my head around the Sevens but I’ve grasped it. I was hoping for a chance like this to come around and it came.

“Hopefully I’ll go out there and play well.”

Scotland Sevens coach, Stephen Gemmell said: “Duncan has been playing consistently well for Hawks and is making progress so this is an opportunity to see how he performs at the next level.