Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland named in Scotland’s starting XV for second game of rugby’s 2025 Six Nations, v Ireland
Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland have been named in Scotland’s starting line-up for their second game of rugby’s 2025 Six Nations, at home to Ireland this coming Sunday.
Edinburgh right-winger Graham, 27, and Glasgow Warriors loosehead prop Sutherland, 32, both featured in the Scots’ opening 31-19 win against Italy on Saturday gone, also at home at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium.
The former, playing his first Six Nations game since 2022, was named in head coach Gregor Townsend’s starting XV and played for all but the last eight minutes, making way for Kyle Rowe, and the latter was brought on as a replacement for Pierre Schoeman on 51 minutes.
Sunday’s game will be only Sutherland’s seventh international start since being selected for the British and Irish Lions’ 2021 summer tour of South Africa and it’s his first Six Nations start since Scotland’s 20-17 victory at home to England in February 2022.
Graham, now on 43 caps, and Sutherland, on 38, are among three Borderers in the Scots’ squad for the championship, along with three-times-capped ex-Peebles hooker Patrick Harrison, now a team-mate of Graham’s at Edinburgh.
They’re joined by 35-times-capped former Melrose loosehead prop Jamie Bhatti and ex-Southern Knights openside flanker Rory Darge, on 26 caps at the moment.
Darge, 24, a team-mate of Sutherland’s at Glasgow, has been named as squad co-captain with Finn Russell following original choice Sione Tuipulotu being forced to pull out by injury. Both Darge and Russell are in Sunday’s starting line-up as co-skippers.
The Scots’ other starters are Blair Kinghorn, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White, Dave Cherry, Zander and Matt Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist and Jack Dempsey.
Ewan Ashman, Schoeman, Will Hurd, Sam Skinner, Gregor Brown, Jamie Ritchie, Jamie Dobie and Stafford McDowall are on the bench.
Scotland go into Sunday’s game, with kick-off at 3pm, hoping to end a ten-match losing streak against the Irish dating back seven years.
It was eight years ago this week that the Scots last beat the Irish under prior head coach Vern Cotter, by 27-22 at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium, and they’ve lost all ten since Townsend, 51, took over three months later, including Sutherland’s international debut in March 2016, a 35-25 defeat in Dublin.
Sutherland is glad to be back in Townsend’s Six Nations squad after initially missing out last year, though he was given a belated call-up midway through the tournament and went on to make one appearance, saying: “With international rugby, it’s tough. There’s very high pressure all the time, so when you get an opportunity, you have to take it, regardless of whether you’re starting or on the bench.
“Whatever opportunities come my way, I’ll be ready to take them.”
Sutherland is hoping he can help stop Scotland’s losing streak versus the Irish going further into double figures, adding: “It would be massive.
“Ireland are a team we hold in very high regard. I think there is a little bit of added spice there because it’s them.
“We’ve fallen short against them but we’ve got a lot of respect for them.
“It’s a test we’re really looking forward to and I think it’s a test we’ll be well prepared to win.”
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