Hawick’s Darcy Graham declared fit for Scotland’s Rugby World Cup opener versus South Africa

The Hawick 26-year-old has been declared fit after getting through training in Nice this week without any adverse reaction, reports assistant coach John Dalziel.

Edinburgh winger Graham missed the Scots’ final warm-up game against Georgia last month with a thigh injury and wasn’t fit enough to train with his team-mates last week but is back in training now and will be available for selection for head coach Gregor Townsend’s match-day squad.

“Wednesday was his second day training,” said former Gala, Melrose and Border Reivers flanker Dalziel, 46.

“He is fully fit and ready to go. If selected, he is ready to go.

“Wednesday tends to be our more physical training day. The end of the week tends to be more the speed element and the contact. Wednesday was a big day in terms of units.”

Graham’s return to fitness means his Edinburgh team-mate Luke Crosbie is now the Scots’ only injury doubt ahead of Sunday’s match in Marseille against the defending world champions.

“Luke Crosbie has trained but not fully with the squad,” said Dalziel. “Could he be available? Possibly.”

Looking ahead to the weekend’s opener, he added: “Taking on South Africa in our opening match is very challenging, very daunting, but it is something we’ve had our mind on for a long time, and we have been building towards that.

“We believe we’ve moved away from being a Scotland team who go to tournaments with hope to having genuine belief.

“We’ve prepared accordingly and we’re now ready to go.”

Graham is now on 19 tries in 35 international appearances since 2018, seven of them touched down in his last for games – one behind current team-mate Duhan van der Merwe and just eight short of fellow ex-Green Stuart Hogg’s all-time record of 27 in his 100-match career.