Hawick’s Darcy Graham targeting century of caps for Scottish national rugby team after hitting 50 mark

Edinburgh right-winger Graham’s 50th cap arrives seven years after his first, as a 73rd-minute substitute during a 21-10 defeat away to Wales in Cardiff in November 2018, and he’s scored a joint-record 34 tries since then.

The Hawick 28-year-old wasn’t able to add to that tally during the weekend’s 33-24 loss to the Pumas at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium, the hosts’ tries being touched down by hooker Ewan Ashman at the double and No 8 Jack Dempsey, with fly-half Finn Russell converting all three and also kicking a penalty.

Julian Montoya, Rodrigo Isgro, Pedro Rubiolo, Pablo Matera and Justo Piccardo touched down the Argentinians’ tries, all but one of them converted by Santiago Carreras, during a second-half fightback after falling 21-0 behind. That was the Scots’ second defeat in their three autumn tests so far, all at Murrayfield, having lost 25-17 to New Zealand eight days earlier after starting off with an 85-0 win against the USA on Saturday, November 1.

They’ve got one last chance to break even this coming Sunday, however, as they host their final autumn test, versus Tonga, with kick-off at 1.40pm.

Setting his sights on hitting a century of caps for Scotland, a feat only achieved by four players so far, three of them fellow Borderers – Kelso’s Ross Ford with 110, Gala’s Chris Paterson with 109 and Hawick’s Stuart Hogg with 100 – Graham, talking ahead of Sunday’s game, said: “As a young boy, you dream of playing for your country.

“To do it one time is a dream come true, but to do it 50 times is very special.

“Growing up, after I first picked up a rugby ball, all I ever wanted to do was play for Scotland.

“Playing for Hawick feels still like yesterday, and I’d love to go back and play for them and play with my pals again.

“I could play for another, what, maybe six years hopefully, so I’m going to have to rack them up pretty quickly to get to 100, and that would be so special.

“To get 50 is an unbelievable achievement and I cherish every cap I’ve had in every game.

“It goes so fast. It’s crazy that I’m up to 50 already, and really in another four years’ time, it could all be over.

“It’s scary how fast time moves and I think now it’s just really about enjoying every moment, enjoying every cap, every game, especially at Murrayfield. There’s no better place to play.

“I think I just wear my heart on the sleeve. I just go out there, I put my body on the line and chuck myself about.

“I don’t shy away from anything. You’ll never change me from that.

“When I play for Scotland, it’s such a special thing. I want to go out there and just put everything I have on that pitch and leave that jersey in a better spot.”

Graham credits his uncle Scott MacLeod, a former Border Reivers and Newcastle Falcons lock capped 24 times between 2004 and 2011, as an inspiration for his international career, recalling: “I looked up to my uncle and he played for Scotland.

“I can always remember a photo of him in his house playing against the All Blacks, facing the haka, and I was like ‘that’s pretty cool’. It was so special. He had that up in his house and I always just wanted to recreate that, so that was pretty special last Saturday.”

Graham almost scored the 35th Scotland try that would have taken him ahead of joint-record-holder Duhan van der Merwe but was denied by a last-ditch tackle by Cam Roigard, forcing him into a knock-on, and he says that’s a big regret.

“I think I’m going to have nightmares about that try, or disallowed try, for the rest of my life,” he reflected.

“It’s one of those that's going to haunt me for a while.

“It was just one of the ones that got away, wasn’t it? It was just one of those that I’ll try and make up for when we get them again.”

Though he failed to get on the scoresheet against New Zealand this time round, Graham has a prior try against the All Blacks to his name and he rates that touchdown, during a 31-23 defeat at Murrayfield in November 2022 as one of his favourite moments playing for his country, alongside his 2018 debut and scoring twice versus England in London in March 2019 as the visitors fought back from 31-0 down to draw 38-38.

“It was an incredible day,” said Graham of that Twickenham Stadium stalemate. “Although it was a draw, it almost felt like a Scottish win.”

Graham is enjoying his rivalry with Edinburgh teammate van der Merwe, 30, at the top of the try-scoring leaderboard and is hoping to get the chance to add to his tally when Scotland take on Tonga at the weekend.

“I’d love to finish up being top-try scorer and that’s definitely a goal of mine, when I do finally hang up the boots,” he said.

“It’s very special that me and Duhi are both in the race just now, and it’s quite cool to share that journey with him because we’ve been through everything together.”

Head coach Gregor Townsend is due to name his team to play the Tongans this Friday.