Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland back for Scotland’s second-last game of rugby’s 2025 Six Nations

The right-winger was rested for that second defeat of this year’s championship after being left concussed by a clash of heads with fly-half and co-captain Finn Russell 21 minutes into the Scots’ 32-18 loss hosting Ireland on Sunday, February 9, at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium.

He’s been passed as fit to resume his first Six Nations campaign since 2022, having been ruled out of 2023 and 2024’s by injury, at home to Wales – the side he made his international debut against in November 2018, as a 73rd-minute replacement for Tommy Seymour during a 21-10 autumn test defeat in Cardiff, and scored his first Scotland try versus in March of the year after, just short of an hour into an 18-11 home Six Nations loss – this Saturday, however. Kick-off is at 4.45pm.

The 27-year-old’s return is the only change to the starting XV beaten at London’s Twickenham Stadium on Saturday, February 22.

Fellow ex-Green Rory Sutherland also makes a comeback, as a replacement, after missing that first Calcutta Cup defeat for five years due to a back spasm, making that game’s match-day squad the first of the tournament without any Borderers in.

Lining up alongside Edinburgh’s Graham in Saturday’s starting XV, co-skippered by Russell and ex-Southern Knights openside flanker Rory Darge, are Blair Kinghorn, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White, Pierre Schoeman, Dave Cherry, Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie and Jack Dempsey.

Joining Glasgow Warriors loosehead prop Sutherland, 32, on the bench are Ewan Ashman, Will Hurd, Gregor Brown, Matt Fagerson, George Horne, Stafford McDowall and Kyle Rowe.

Graham and Sutherland are among three representatives of the region in head coach Gregor Townsend’s squad for his seventh championship, the other being ex-Peebles hooker Patrick Harrison.

Graham is currently on 44 caps since 2018, all but five of them starts, with Sutherland on 39, 20 of them from the bench, since 2016 and Edinburgh’s Harrison, 22, on three since last July, two of them as a substitute.

Scotland go into round four of the tournament looking for a third win on the bounce against Wales, having beaten them 27-26 in Cardiff last February and 35-7 in Edinburgh a year previously.

They’re fourth in the table at the moment, with six points from three fixtures, that being two places and five points better off than interim head coach Matt Sherratt’s visitors.

This weekend’s game is followed by a trip to France on Saturday, March 15, with kick-off in Paris at 8pm, to conclude this year’s tournament.

Graham has been given just over an hour and a half’s game-time so far this Six Nations, playing for the first 73 minutes of Scotland’s opening 31-19 win at home to Italy and for the first quarter of their loss to the Irish.

Sutherland’s had almost a game’s worth all together, playing for the last half-hour against the Italians as a replacement for Schoeman and for the first 48 minutes versus the Irish before making way for the South African, the latter being his first Six Nations start since 2022.

Welcoming fellow Borderer Graham’s return, ex-Gala and Border Reivers player Townsend, 51, said: “He had trained with us before the England game but we decided that was a game too early for him and we made sure he didn’t do contact training that week. He’s now been doing full-contact for the last ten days.

“He was in great form before his injury and we expect him to be in similar form now. He’s trained really well.”