THERE was a time when the strength of rugby in the Borders was a weathervane for Scottish rugby generally.
That period has passed with professionalism but one of the great rugby sons of the area, and Hawick in particular, passed this week. Derrick Grant who played man and boy – the latter literally – for Hawick and then coached them to great glories died aged 86.
Grant, right, was a hard as nails flanker – Scotland have produced a few over the years – who made his senior debut for Hawick at the ridiculously young age of 15 which wouldn’t be allowed...