Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland help Scotland end summer’s games in rugby’s new Nations Championship on winning note

Edinburgh right-winger Graham, 29, was recalled by fellow Borderer Gregor Townsend after sitting out the Saturday prior’s 42-28 loss away to South Africa and Glasgow Warriors loosehead prop Sutherland, 33, was given his first start since February last year.

Graham played for the first 55 minutes of the weekend’s 33-17 victory at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium hosting Fiji in front of a crowd of 55,215 and Sutherland was on for 47 before being replaced by Sione Tuipulotu and Pierre Schoeman respectively.

The former, his country’s all-time top try-scorer with 38, is now on 57 caps and the latter is on 51.

The pair are the only Borderers in Townsend’s summer test squad, though he’s also got fellow ex-Gala and Border Reivers player John Dalziel in his coaching set-up.

Scotland’s try-scorers as they fought back from trailing 17-7 at half-time were lock Jonny Gray, replacement Jamie Dobie at the double and fellow substitutes Schoeman and Scott Cummings, with scrum-half George Horne adding one conversion and fly-half Fergus Burke another three.

Touching down tries for Fiji, one of them converted by Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula, were Tevita Ikanivere, Selesitino Ravutaumada and Elia Canakaivata.

Head coach Townsend, 53, was heartened by his Stafford McDowall-skippered side’s fightback after falling behind, saying: “We’ve been able to show that we’re able to come back in games – against South Africa, for example, last week – and also being able to ride momentum as well. That’s the part that I’ve been most impressed with, and I’m pleased that the players are able to handle momentum and notice it and make sure that we get it back quickly.

“Also, I feel that there’s a real alignment with the game. I think our supporters know what our identity is and our players do too and they know what is working for us. That’s not just playing an attack and moving the ball – it’s a certain way that they can shape a defence, and the kicking game too. We came on in huge strides there and that was something we had to go to.

“It’s been a positive season and there’s still a lot of growth in us.”

Townsend is also glad to see his side, ranked sixth in the world, going up against bigger names for summer tests such as the world champion Springboks in the new biennial championship rather than the likes of the USA, Canada, Chile and Uruguay in 2024 and Fiji, Samoa and the Maori All Blacks last year in friendlies, adding: “The more opportunities we have playing the top four or five in the world can only be of benefit.

“Obviously, if you win, that’s great, but even in our loss last week, I think we’ve learned some things that we know we can bring into our game and improve further.

“We’ve missed it – we definitely have missed it – but now it's going to be a fixture, isn’t it? Every two years, the Scotland team will get to be in this championship.

“We’ve been outside of that club for a few years, so just to be in Argentina and South Africa, you feel you’re part of something bigger than just a friendly.

“There’s something to strive towards when we come back in November.

“We know we’re going to play New Zealand next in November, and to get the chance to play them is always something special, knowing that it’s an opportunity to finish higher up the table and play a potential New Zealand or South Africa or whoever’s going to finish high up the table on their side in round four.”

Townsend’s team continue their championship campaign with three home fixtures in November – against the All Blacks on Saturday the 7th, Australia on Sunday the 15th and Japan on Saturday the 21st.

They go into those games sitting second in the championship’s northern hemisphere standings on 11 points, one behind top dogs France and one ahead of third-placed England.

Saturday’s win versus Fiji and the Scots’ loss in Pretoria seven days previously came after a 47-38 win away to Argentina on Saturday, July 4.

Graham and Sutherland’s appearances against the Fijians were their second and third of this summer’s three-match series respectively.

The latter was brought on as a replacement for Schoeman against both the South Africans and Argentinians, on 67 minutes in Pretoria and 60 in Cordoba, and the latter was also deployed as substitute versus the Pumas, taking over from Kyle Steyn on the hour mark.