Borders rugby star Darcy Graham: ‘One injury could finish your career, so it’s just about enjoying the moments and taking a week at a time’

“You never know when your last game is going to be,” said the Hawick 27-year-old following his try-scoring comeback in a 33-26 pre-season friendly win for Edinburgh at home to English Premiership outfit Gloucester last Friday.

“It sounds cliched but you never know – one injury could finish your career, so it’s just about enjoying the moments and taking a week at a time.”

Right-winger Graham played for the first half of his club’s only pre-season warm-up match, with ex-Melrose player Ross McCann replacing him after the break, and he’s been given a starting place for their United Rugby Championship opener against Leinster tomorrow, September 20, also at the capital’s Hive Stadium, with kick-off at 7.35pm.

Those games are the Borderer’s first since a 21-20 defeat at home to Gloucester back in January in the European Professional Club Rugby Challenge Cup, with a groin issue requiring surgery ruling him out of a second Six Nations on the trot and the rest of last URC season.

The 39-times-capped Scotland international – his country’s joint-third-highest try-scorer of all time, with 24, like fellow ex-Green Tony Stanger and Australian-born Ian Smith – is chuffed to bits to be back, saying: “It was really good to get back out there.

“It had been eight months, so it was really exciting.

“Going into it I knew I only had 40 minutes, so I just wanted to get into the game nice and early and I managed to do that.”

His club’s head coach, Sean Everitt, is as pleased to have him back as he is to be back, describing him as one of the best wingers in the world, but there looks to be little danger of 5ft 9in-tall Graham getting too big for his boots.

“Obviously, coming from your head coach, it’s a real nice compliment, and to have that backing from him is massive, but I don’t let it go to the head too much,” he said.

Graham’s also glad, on reflection, that he gave Scotland’s summer tour of the Americas a miss to continue his recuperation instead, saying: “Looking back at it, it was frustrating not to be going, but then in the grand scheme of things, it was the right thing for me.

“I sat down with the coaches and spoke about it, and I would have been going on tour just straight out of rehab.

“I hadn’t even had a full week of training at that point, so it would have been putting my body under extra stress which wasn’t needed.”

Now fully fit again, Graham’s looking forward to helping Edinburgh improve on their tenth-placed finish in last season’s URC, won by Scottish rivals Glasgow Warriors.

“I prepped in training for the whole pre-season, so I knew coming back into the Gloucester game I was going to be fine,” he said.

“It’s now just about getting that confidence back in and going into the contact. That’s probably the big thing – carrying.

“When you’re out of the game for a while, you’re watching it and it’s so fast, it’s so physical, the boys are massive and you forget a bit, so going back into it is a bit daunting.

“For me, you just have to get stuck into it, and those 40 minutes were really good for me.

“I think we’ve had a really good pre-season. From where we were this time last year, we’re in a much better position, so it’s about getting things right on the pitch on the day.”

Graham has been allocated by Edinburgh to old club Hawick as a draft player this season, along with fellow ex-Green Hector Patterson, plus Rob Carmichael, Tom Dodd, Boan Venter, Mikey Jones and Jack Hocking.