Three Borderers named in Scotland squad for rugby’s 2025 Six Nations

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has named three fellow Borderers in his 37-strong squad for rugby’s 2025 Six Nations.

Edinburgh right-winger Darcy Graham is one of 15 backs and his hooker team-mate Patrick Harrison and Glasgow Warriors loosehead prop Rory Sutherland are among 22 forwards.

Darcy Graham playing for Edinburgh at home to Aviron Bayonnais in December (Photo by Ewan Bootman/SNS Group/Edinburgh)

placeholder image — Darcy Graham playing for Edinburgh at home to Aviron Bayonnais in December (Photo by Ewan Bootman/SNS Group/Edinburgh)

Hawick’s Graham, 27, and Sutherland, 32, are currently on 42 caps and 37 respectively and West Linton’s Harrison, 22, is on three.

They’re joined by 35-times-capped former Melrose loosehead prop Jamie Bhatti and ex-Southern Knights openside flanker Rory Darge, on 25 caps at the moment.

Patrick Harrison in action for Scotland at home to Portugal at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh in November (Photo by Ross MacDonald/SNS Group/SRU)

Ex-Gala and Border Reivers player Townsend, 51, is hoping his team can kick on from autumn test wins against Australia, Fiji and Portugal and improve on their fourth-placed finish at 2024’s Six Nations, saying: “In the main, it’s a squad that we’ve worked with for a number of years and, in particular, that November series. A lot of the guys are back in for this campaign.

“We love the group we’ve got. We feel they’re driving more and more of our standards, our game, our training and we just want to build on what we did in November and add an extra layer.”

Scotland begin this year’s tournament at home at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium to Italy on Saturday, February 1, and they also host Ireland on Sunday, February 9, and Wales on Saturday, March 8, with away-days in England on Saturday, February 22, and France on Saturday, March 15.

Graham and captain Sione Tuipulotu’s fellow backs are Fergus Burke, Matt Currie, Jamie Dobie, George Horne, Rory Hutchinson, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Blair Kinghorn, Stafford McDowall, Finn Russell, Kyle Rowe, Duhan van der Merwe and Ben White.

Rory Sutherland in action for Glasgow Warriors hosting Edinburgh at Hampden Park in December (Photo by Ross MacDonald/SNS Group/Glasgow Warriors)

The Scots’ other forwards are Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Gregor Brown, Dave Cherry, Luke Crosbie, Scott Cummings, Jack Dempsey, Matt and Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Will Hurd, Jack Mann, D’Arcy Rae, Dylan Richardson, Jamie Ritchie, Pierre Schoeman and Marshall Sykes.

This year’s will be Harrison’s first Six Nations as he only made his international debut in July and it’ll be Graham’s first since 2022, having been ruled out of the last two by injury.

Sutherland was the only Borderer to play in 2024’s Six Nations, as a 48th-minute replacement for Schoeman for Scotland’s concluding 17-13 defeat in Ireland in March after being called up mid-tournament.

Graham and Jedburgh’s Glen Young were named in Townsend’s initial squad but the former failed to recover from injury in time and the latter was released part of the way through the tournament.