Darcy Graham targeting fellow Borderer Stuart Hogg’s try record after scoring 18th for Scotland

​The Edinburgh winger’s tries against the Italians at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium, scored on 13 minutes and 56, took his tally to 18 in 34 tests, two-thirds of the way to his ex-national captain’s record of 27.

That brace saw the 26-year-old overtake current team-mate Duhan van der Merwe and three rugby legends, two of them fellow Borderers, to move up to sixth place on the list of the Scots’ top try-scorers ever.

Sixth place, with 17 tries each, had previously been shared by van der Merwe, current Scotland head coach and ex-Gala star Gregor Townsend, Kelso’s Alan Tait, now gaffer at Fosroc Super Series Championship side Southern Knights, and Gavin Hastings.

Graham, out of action for Scotland since scoring a hat-trick against Argentina in November due to a knee injury sustained on club duty the month after, is now within two tries of fifth-placed Tommy Seymour’s tally of 20, with only three other players standing between him and fellow ex-Green Hogg’s record – Gala’s Chris Paterson on 22 and Ian Smith and Hawick’s Tony Stanger in joint second place with 24.

“Me and Duhi are hunting it down, so we are having a wee competition between each other,” he said. “I am one ahead of him – ten more to go.

“Hoggy has been massive and what he has done in a Scotland jersey is incredible.

“He has left a hole. He’s a big figure in Scottish rugby and everybody younger looked up to him."

Graham’s next chance to add to his try total, if selected tomorrow, will come against France at Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday, with kick-off at 3.15pm.

Graham was replaced by Blair Kinghorn on 72 minutes on Saturday but was happy to make way for his clubmate with a double-header against France looming, the second instalment being the other side of the English Channel in Saint-Etienne a week later as part of the Scots’ warm-up schedule for this autumn’s Rugby World Cup in France.

“I did my job and my back tightened up, so I was ready to come off and fire into this week,” he said afterwards.

“I want to play every game from now until the end of the world cup. My aim is to try and get the starting jersey every time.

“I want to pull on the Scotland jersey, no matter when it is or where it is. I love doing it. I want to get a bit of form, get my confidence back up and have a good world cup.”

Graham acknowledges that he and his team-mates will need to up their game to get results against the French, currently third in the sport’s world rankings, two ahead of Townsend’s team, saying: “100% we need to be better against France. They are one of the world’s best and have a home tournament, so their confidence will be high.

“They will come over here and want to get their world cup campaign started and build their confidence as well. They will come here with all guns blazing.

“I’m not hugely satisfied with the Italy game even though I got two tries. I made a few errors out there. I will look at it closely and see how I can improve.”

Graham was one of two Borderers in the starting line-up, captained by former Southern Knights flanker Rory Darge, for Saturday’s 25-13 win against Italy, the other being Hawick’s Rory Sutherland, replaced by ex-Melrose loosehead prop Jamie Bhatti 46 minutes in.

Hogg, 31 and now retired after amassing 100 caps since 2012, has been Scotland’s outright top try-scorer since November 2021 after drawing level with Stanger and Smith earlier that month.

Graham looks likely to get his second start of the year on Saturday, with Townsend, due to name his match-day squad tomorrow, saying: “The way Darcy has played for us in the last few seasons he’s obviously going to be very much in the mix for that.

“It was great that he got a game against Italy. He missed the Six Nations and we just need to get him and the back three more ball.

“He didn’t need to do much for his scores but it shows his instinct for the try-line, especially the second one. He had to finish that but it was created by a solid scrum and a really good carry by Stafford McDowall.

“The first one was a solid lineout maul then a really good kick from Ben Healy. That’s sometimes the way for wingers, but Darcy can create other things with his footwork and pace.”