Borders rugby hero Darcy Graham rates himself ‘very lucky’ to be back in Six Nations action after head injury
Borders rugby star Darcy Graham rates himself as “very lucky” to have been able to resume his first Six Nations campaign since 2022 after being left concussed by a clash of heads with teammate Finn Russell during last month’s 32-18 home loss to Ireland.
The Hawick 27-year-old had to be stretchered off in a head-brace and taken to hospital after that collision with fly-half Russell quarter of the way into that 11th defeat by the Irish on the bounce at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Sunday, February 9, and was forced to sit out the Scots’ follow-up 16-15 Calcutta Cup loss away to England on Saturday, February 22.
The Edinburgh right-winger was back on the ball for Saturday’s 35-29 victory hosting Wales after passing the required head-injury assessments, however, marking his return by scoring the 30th test try of his 45-cap international career, and he regards himself as fortunate to have got off relatively lightly and without any broken bones.
“That could have been a sickening one because we were worried about my jaw being broken and that would have been my championship over,” he said.
“To have not broken my jaw was big, but symptoms-wise, it settled down pretty quick. I was very lucky – I got away with it.”
Graham can’t recall the immediate aftermath of his collision with Russell, 32, but has watched television footage of it since.
“It was a bit of a blur,” he said. “The first 20 minutes after I’d taken the knock were totally unaccounted for.
“Coming off the pitch on the cart, I can’t remember anything about that.
“The next thing I really remember was my mum and dad in the physio room, then I went to hospital and had X-rays and they came back really positive.
"I’ve watched it back and I can’t believe my head can touch my knee! When you fall like that, unconscious, I could have easily torn my hamstring as well.
“My head was sore for a few days afterwards and that’s all. Again, I was lucky in that sense.
“It was a freak incident. I couldn’t have done it if I tried, but it just shows you how easy things can happen.”
Despite passing a head-injury assessment ahead of the England game, Graham didn’t feel ready to return to action and was glad of the extra recovery time he was granted by getting that weekend off and the next one being a blank one for the tournament.
“Obviously I wanted to play – I want to play for Scotland as much as I can – but I’m just glad we took that extra time,” he said.
“That England game was never realistic. I trained the Tuesday and Wednesday with the team but it was the right thing not playing in that game.
“I wasn't running about the training pitch like I normally would. It was more a confidence thing.
“My jaw was still sore. I was scared to take a knock on it.
“I’m glad we did the sensible thing taking that extra amount of time because it was a nasty one.
“You obviously can’t see your brain, but if it was like my hamstring, you’d see the bruising in there or something, so I’m glad we took that extra time. I think we dealt with it really well.
“I was happy going into Saturday. I was fully ready to get going again.
“I wasn’t worried about going onto the pitch and putting my head where I normally do.
“It was a month, four weeks, from doing it to my next game, so I just built up confidence in training and I was ready to get back on the pitch.”
Next up for Scotland is their concluding game of the tournament away to table-toppers France this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 8pm, and head coach Gregor Townsend is due to announce his match-day squad for that trip on Thursday morning.
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