Hawick’s Darcy Graham ruled out of Six Nations comeback for Scotland against England by new injury

The Edinburgh winger missed the Scots’ first two matches of this year’s Six Nations, a 27-26 win away to Wales in Cardiff on Saturday, February 3, and a 20-16 defeat at home to France at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday, February 10, due to a quad injury sustained during Edinburgh’s 21-20 European Professional Club Rugby Challenge Cup loss at home to Gloucester at the capital’s Hive Stadium on Saturday, January 13.

That injury blow came just a month after the Borderer made a comeback for his club at home to France’s Castres Olympique on Saturday, December 16, after having been sidelined by hip and knee issues since Scotland’s Rugby World Cup exit to Ireland at the start of October and it’s now been followed by another one, a groin injury picked up while training with his club last week

Head coach Gregor Townsend had been hopeful he’d be available for selection to play against the English at Murrayfield but that’s now been ruled out too.

The Hawick 26-year-old now has only two chances left to feature in this year’s Six Nations – away to Italy in Rome on Saturday, March 9, with kick-off at 2.15pm, and against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday, March 16, at 4.45pm.

Scotland are third in the table at the moment, with five points from two fixtures, three points and one place behind head coach Steve Borthwick’s English visitors.

They’ve won their last three Calcutta Cup matches against England and will now be looking to extend that winning streak to four games for the first time since 1972.

Those victories were by 29-23 in London last year, 20-17 in Edinburgh in 2022 and 11-6 south of the border in 2021.

Townsend is due to announce his match-day squad of 23 for this weekend’s game on Thursday.

Kick-off on Saturday is at 4.45pm.