Borderer Darcy Graham set to play first Six Nations game since 2022 after being named in Scotland’s starting XV v Italy
Hawick’s Darcy Graham is being given his first Six Nations start for almost three years against Italy this coming Saturday.
That will be the Edinburgh right-winger’s first taste of Six Nations action since a Scottish side captained by another ex-Green, Stuart Hogg, lost 26-5 to Ireland in Dublin back in March 2022.
The 27-year-old is the only fellow Borderer in head coach Gregor Townsend’s starting XV to take on opposite number Gonzalo Quesada’s Italians at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium, with kick-off at 2.15pm, but former Hawick and Gala loosehead prop Rory Sutherland has been named among the replacements.
Graham and Glasgow Warriors’ Sutherland are among three Borderers in the Scots’ squad for the championship, along with ex-Peebles hooker Patrick Harrison, now a team-mate of Graham’s at United Rugby Championship outfit Edinburgh.
Graham, 27, and Sutherland, 32, are currently on 42 caps and 37 respectively and West Linton’s Harrison, 22, is on three.
They’re joined by 35-times-capped former Melrose loosehead prop Jamie Bhatti and ex-Southern Knights openside flanker Rory Darge, on 25 caps at the moment.
Darge, 24, now a team-mate of Sutherland’s at Glasgow, has been named as squad co-captain with Finn Russell following original choice Sione Tuipulotu being forced to pull out by injury. Both Darge and Russell are in Saturday’s starting line-up as co-skippers.
Blair Kinghorn, Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White, Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Zander and Matt Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist and Jamie Ritchie are the hosts’ other starters.
Joining Sutherland on the substitutes’ bench are Ewan Ashman, Will Hurd, Gregor Brown, Jack Dempsey, George Horne, Tom Jordan and Kyle Rowe.
Scotland go into their 2025 Six Nations opener looking to bounce back from their first loss to Italy since 2015 in Rome last March, by 31-29.
“The players know this is the biggest tournament they play in and getting to start at home is massive for them,” said ex-Border Reivers and Gala star Townsend, 51.
“Italy are a really quality side and they’ve shown that now for two or three years.
“They’ve been difficult opponents for us and other teams in the Six Nations, and I think they’ll come into this tournament full of confidence.
“In last year’s Six Nations, they had upped their game and were competitive in four out of five matches. They won two and drew one and one of those victories was against us, so they’ll be very confident, feeling that they can beat us again.
“There is an intelligence in how they play with the way they look after the ball.
“They’re a quality side and they play with a lot of passion too, so it will be a very physical game.
“We know we're going to have a noisy crowd behind us at the weekend but really it’s about the performance and the mindset going into the game and delivering what we’re capable of delivering for 80 minutes.”
Scotland’s 2024 defeat in Rome was Townsend’s first loss to Italy since taking over from Vern Cotter as head coach in 2017, having won the preceding nine to extend his country’s winning streak against the Azzurri to 13 games.
As well as being Graham’s first Six Nations since 2022, having been ruled out of the last two by injury, this year’s will be Harrison’s first ever as he only made his international debut in July.
Sutherland was the only Borderer to play in last year’s, as a 48th-minute replacement for Schoeman for Scotland’s concluding 17-13 defeat in Ireland in March after being called up mid-tournament.
Graham and Jedburgh’s Glen Young were named in Townsend’s initial squad but the former failed to recover from injury in time and the latter was released partway through the tournament.
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