MIKE BLAIR, the former Scotland captain, is poised to kick-start his long-standing rivalry with Rory Lawson after being signed up by Newcastle Falcons.
The British & Irish Lions scrum-half is switching to Kingston Park after failing to be offered an extended deal with cash-strapped French club Brive.
He was first in competition with Lawson when they were together at Edinburgh in the early stages of their respective careers. They also had joint spells in the Scotland set-up and will now try to restore Falcons to the top flight of English rugby.
Blair, who quit the Test stage last year, said: "There has always been a strong Scottish influence at Newcastle and I am delighted to continue in that tradition.
"Falcons have ambitions to challenge in the Aviva Premiership, and although there are still the play-offs to be played, they are in a good position to be promoted and to achieve this goal.
"I am really enjoying my time in France, but I feel that playing with Newcastle will provide me with a rugby challenge that I have been looking for."
Falcons director Dean Richards said: "Mike is a fantastic acquisition for the club and he will add considerable experience from his time in the Scotland set-up."
Doddie Weir, Gary Armstrong, Alan Tait and Stuart Grimes are among the Scots who have played for Newcastle in recent times.
Blair will also rekindle his links with his old Edinburgh team-mate Ally Hogg.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article