Scotland call-ups for Borderers Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland ahead of autumn rugby tests
Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland have been named in fellow Borderer Gregor Townsend’s squad of 37 for the Scottish national rugby team’s four Nations Championship fixtures next month after making comebacks from injury in the nick of time for selection.
Both played their first games of the season this month after returning from injury, just in time to feature in Scotland head coach Townsend’s squad announcement today, October 26, put back a week to give him a chance to take in an extra weekend of fixtures before making his choices.
Edinburgh right-winger Graham defied expectations, after sustaining a bicep tear in a pre-season friendly in London last month and being ruled out of playing again until late December at the earliest, by turning out for his club’s 27-17 loss at home to France’s Toulon on Friday, October 16, his first appearance for the capital city outfit since May, though he was dropped for their 31-10 United Rugby Championship win hosting South Africa’s Lions 31-10 at the capital’s Hive Stadium seven days later as a precaution after straining a calf.
Glasgow Warriors loosehead prop Sutherland made his comeback from a calf injury eight days later for his club’s 24-20 championship victory away to Benetton in Italy on Saturday, playing for the first 55 minutes in Treviso before making way for Nathan McBeth.
That was his first competitive game since, together with Graham, helping Scotland beat Fiji 33-17 at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium in July and his first for his club since their 22-21 play-off semi-final loss to South Africa’s Bulls in June, also at the national stadium.
Graham, 29, his country’s all-time leading try-scorer with 38, is currently on 57 caps, 48 of them starts, since 2018 and Sutherland, 34, is on 51, 28 of them from the bench, since 2016.
Graham and Sutherland are the only Borderers in Townsend’s squad but they’re joined by ex-Southern Knights flanker Rory Darge.
Scotland, captained by Sutherland’s Scotstoun Stadium teammate, begin the first of three autumn tests at Murrayfield against New Zealand on Saturday, November 7, with Australia following on Sunday, November 15, and Japan on Saturday, November 21, with kick-offs at 2.10pm, 3.10pm and 2.10pm respectively.
They then wrap up their autumn internationals against opposition yet to be determined at London’s Twickenham Stadium at the end of next month.
Graham and Tuipulotu’s 14 fellow backs are Fergus Burke, Jamie Dobie, George Horne, Rory Hutchinson, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Blair Kinghorn, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Rowe, Finn Russell, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Duhan van der Merwe and Ben White.
The Scots’ 19 other forwards accompanying Sutherland and Darge are Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Alex Craig, Jack Dempsey, Matt and Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Gregor Hiddleston, Will Hurd, Ollie Leatherbarrow, McBeth, Liam McConnell, Elliot Millar Mills, Jamie Ritchie, Pierre Schoeman, Seb Stephen and Max Williamson.
Announcing his delayed squad selection, former Gala back Townsend, 53, said: “It’s always a waiting game for us, as coaches to see which players are available to finalise our squad.
“We know there are huge games coming up over the next four or five weeks and we see it as another opportunity to progress from what we did last season.”