Hawick’s Darcy Graham reclaims standing as Scottish national rugby team’s joint leading try-scorer of all time with 35th touchdown v Wales
Borderer Darcy Graham has reclaimed his status as the Scottish national rugby team’s joint leading try-scorer ever and it only took him three minutes of their 26-23 win away to Wales on Saturday to pull off that feat.
The Hawick 28-year-old, on the bench for the third game on the bounce and eighth time all together, took over from fellow Edinburgh winger Duhan van der Merwe on 54 minutes, earning his 53rd cap, and almost immediately helped head coach Gregor Townsend’s visitors fight back from being 20-5 down early in the second half to overtake their hosts and rack up back-to-back Six Nations victories, extending the Welsh’s losing run in the championship to 14 fixtures over the last three years.
That was Graham’s first international try since a hat-trick at home to the USA at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium in November and it takes him back level with van der Merwe, 30, started at No 11 at the weekend, at the top of the Scots’ scoring leaderboard, both now being on 35 touchdowns.
Also scoring tries for Scotland, captained by inside-centre Sione Tuipulotu, in front of a crowd of 70,649 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium were right-winger Kyle Steyn on 13 minutes, fly-half Finn Russell on 54 and fellow substitute George Turner on 74, with Russell adding three conversions.
Rhys Carre and Josh Adams scored their hosts’ tries on nine minutes and 18 respectively, with Sam Costelow kicking two penalties and two conversions and Jarrod Evans contributing another penalty.
Graham credits a well-placed restart kick by Russell, 33, and a fortunate bounce for his latest score, saying: “It was kind of just Finn. Finn just gave me the eyes up, like ‘just be ready for it if there’s that space’ and he hit the kick and I just took off with everything I had.
“I got lucky with the bounce and managed to finish in the corner. I’m buzzing.”
Former Gala and Border Reivers back Townsend, 52, rates Graham’s try as the turning point in the game that put his team on their way to winning against opposite number Steve Tandy’s basement side, saying afterwards: “That was a big moment in the game and credit goes to Finn for seeing that space and Darcy being alive to it.
“It’s a 23-man game and we backed our bench.
“We’re still in the championship – that’s all that counts. Today showed, and not just in our game, that anything can happen in the championship.
“That was some game. It would have been great for neutrals.
“We left it late but I’m really proud of the effort in the second half. It’s not just physical effort, it’s mental effort too, finding solutions, staying together and riding momentum waves.
“Wales started really well and played with real energy.
“Tactically they were excellent. They took us on wide and defended well.
“We needed to up our effort in the second half, which we did, and our bench made an impact, which was pleasing.
“I think we overcame a hurdle coming back against a quality team and how we played in that second half.
“I was just so proud to see the team staying together, finding solutions, not taking the easy way out.
“They fought to the end and they were desperate to get the win, but it was more than that. It was about control – it was intelligence.
“Obviously it was a very close victory but it’s one that will do us a lot of good.”
Graham was the only fellow Borderer in Townsend’s match-day line-up of 23 but one of two in his tournament squad of 42, the other being Hawick’s Rory Sutherland.
The 46-times-capped loosehead prop, 33, hasn’t been selected for any of his country’s three senior match-day squads thus far this championship but was given a start for Scotland A’s 24-24 draw away to an Italian XV in Rieti in Lazio on Friday, February 6, making way for Alec Hepburn on 41 minutes.
Graham’s record-reclaiming turn in Cardiff was his third of the competition, having taken over from full-back Tom Jordan on 69 minutes during the Scots’ 31-20 Calcutta Cup win against England at Murrayfield seven days earlier, following on from a half-hour shift during their 18-15 opening-round loss away to Italy a week before that as a replacement for left-winger Jamie Dobie.
Saturday’s win versus the Welsh, their fourth in a row against them, marked the halfway point of the tournament for Scotland, their remaining games being at home to France on Saturday, March 7, and away to Ireland a week later, both with kick-offs at 2.10pm.
It lifted them up to the top of the championship table, on 11 points, overnight but Sunday’s 33-8 victory for France hosting Italy put them back in pole position, with Townsend’s team slipping to second.
They host the French and head to Dublin hoping to end respective losing streaks of three matches dating back to 2023 and 11 since 2018.