Hawick’s Darcy Graham back as Scotland national rugby team’s all-time top try-scorer with 37

The 28-year-old, given his first start for his country for almost four months, opened the scoring for head coach Gregor Townsend’s hosts on five minutes and added a second try just ahead of the hour mark to take his international tally to 37, two clear of Edinburgh teammate Duhan van der Merwe.

As well as setting a new record, those tries doubled the Edinburgh right-winger’s total versus the French, having previously scored against them in August 2023 in St Etienne and March last year in Paris.

He’s also scored five against Wales, four versus Georgia, Romania, Fiji and Italy; three against Argentina and America; two against England; and one against Japan, Tonga, Portugal and New Zealand.

The Scots’ other try-scorers were left-winger Kyle Steyn at the double, loosehead prop Pierre Schoeman, scrum-half Ben White and replacement Tom Jordan, with fly-half Finn Russell adding four conversions and a penalty.

Touching down tries for head coach Fabian Galthie’s visitors, earning them a bonus point after falling 47-14 behind at one point, were Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Theo Attissogbe, Antoine Dupont, Thomas Ramos at the double and Jegou, with full-back Ramos kicking five conversions.

That first Auld Alliance Trophy win against France since 2021 takes Townsend’s second-placed team level with their table-topping visitors on 16 points from four fixtures and in contention for their first Six Nations title ever.

The Scots’ championship finale is away to third-placed Ireland this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 2.10pm, and the French sign off six hours later at home to second-from-bottom England.

Scotland head to Dublin hoping to end an 11-match losing streak against the Irish by claiming their first win there since 2010 and first against them all told since 2017.

Graham, on for all 80 minutes on Saturday, was back in his once-automatic starting place on the Scots’ right wing, with Steyn – occupant of that berth for their 18-15 opening-round loss away to Italy on Saturday, February 7, and the back-to-back wins that followed the two Saturdays after, by 31-20 hosting England and 26-23 in Wales respectively – switching to the opposite side of the pitch.

That was his first start for his country since he hit his half-century of international caps for a 33-24 loss hosting Argentina at Murrayfield back in mid-November.

Scotland’s No 14 jersey went to Kyle Rowe for their 56-0 autumn test win against Tonga a week after that and to his Glasgow Warriors teammate Steyn, 32, for their first three games of this championship, with the South African putting in full 80-minute shifts, followed by one of 67 minutes at the weekend, and Graham, now on 54 caps, limited to appearances as replacement No 23 lasting 31 minutes in Rome, 22 minutes for their Calcutta Cup win versus England and 26 minutes in Cardiff.

Last month’s win against the Welsh also yielded Graham’s first international try since a hat-trick against the USA at home at the start of November, taking him back level with van der Merwe at the top of Scotland’s try-scoring standings on 35 prior to overtaking the South African at the weekend.

Looking back over the Scots’ third win on the bounce, he told BBC Sport: “That game was crazy. A 90-point game is unheard of against France.

“They’re such a quality team and we knew what they were going to bring, and I think we did really well to stop them.

“It was such an open game from minute one. It probably took us about 20 minutes to find our legs a wee bit.

“That was a special win for us.

“We we were just thinking about the next play, winning those small moments and stacking them on top of each other so they ended up becoming big moments.

“It was just about getting the next job done and keeping the pressure on them.

“Credit to France, we knew they were going to start running and chucking the ball about in those last 20 minutes and they did, and came back, but we did enough to hold on.

“Our confidence is right up there, probably the highest it’s been. Everybody’s loving life and coming in and training hard.

“It’s been a really good campaign so far, so it would be nice to go over to Ireland and get that win. It’s all to play for next weekend.”

Former Gala back Townsend, 52, added: “We probably wouldn’t have thought we’d be in this position after the first match.

“To get bonus points against some quality teams – England and France were probably in the top three in the world coming into this tournament, certainly when they played us – so to get four and seven tries and get maximum points against them was great.

“We’ve given ourselves an opportunity.

“It’s not all in our hands because France will play after us. We’ll just make sure we target that Ireland game and do all we can to win and see what happens after.”

Graham was one of two fellow Borderers in Townsend’s match-day squad for Saturday, captained by inside-centre Sione Tuipulotu, the other being former Hawick and Gala prop Rory Sutherland, now at Glasgow Warriors.

Now on 47 caps, the 33-year-old’s place on the bench was his first selection of this championship and, taking over from Schoeman on 64 minutes, his first senior Scotland appearance since he started against Tonga in November.