WHAT A STEAL!
Townsend persuades flanker Graham to turn his back on England EXCLUSIVE
NEWCASTLE forward Gary Graham was called up by Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend yesterday — just months after pledging his future to England.
The Stirling-born flanker was part of Eddie Jones’ Six Nations squad and said he ‘would love to play against Scotland, make 1,000 tackles and shove it in their face’.
And he added: ‘England want to be No 1 in the world and I’m not sure Scotland will ever be anywhere near. I’ve grown up here (in England) so, yeah, I feel more English than Scottish.’
Graham (right) did not, however, turn out for England — for whom he qualified through residency — meaning he was still eligible for a Scotland call-up.
And last night his father — former Scotland prop George — defended his son’s controversial U-turn.
‘First of all, I am over the moon he is now with Scotland,’ said Graham snr. ‘If anybody knows anything about rugby players, what else could he say at the time he was called up by England?
‘He can’t really go: “I am only playing for England because Scotland haven’t asked me and I really want to play for Scotland”. You can’t really say that.
‘As for what he said, he has made his bed and will have to deal with the questions that come along. At the end of the day, everybody who knows Gary knows he is Scottish.
‘He qualified for England (through
residency) because we lived down here for so long and he had been flattered when Eddie Jones asked him to get involved. ‘He is big and ugly enough to defend himself and if anybody wants to question him about his allegiance, I am sure he will be more than capable of fending off these questions in one way or another.’ The 26-year-old is now in contention to face South Africa at BT Murrayfield on Saturday and he insisted: ‘I’m Scottish through-andthrough but England asked me first as I’m eligible through residency. ‘It would have been silly to pass up the opportunity, as I hadn’t been selected for a Scotland squad since Under-20s. ‘I phoned Gregor to assure him I wanted to play for Scotland — and always wanted to play for my country.’ Scotland head coach Townsend had been talking privately to Graham for months, trying to get him to revert back to the land of his birth after representing them at Under-20 level in a team that included the likes of Finn Russell. Falling out of the England picture would, of course, have helped him make his final decision to switch allegiance back to Scotland. Although not in Scotland’s original 40-man squad for the current Test series, he was called up by Townsend over the weekend in place of the injured Blade Thomson, who has been ruled out of the games against South Africa and Argentina with concussion. ‘It was great to hear from Gary that he wanted to commit to Scotland,’ said Townsend. ‘It has become a competitive environment for dual-qualified players recently and we know that these are not easy decisions for players. ‘We have been tracking Gary since he was at Jersey and his form over the past 12 months at Newcastle has moved him closer to playing international rugby. We look forward to welcoming him into our squad for this week’s camp.’ Graham may not be the only Scottish-qualified player to defect from England to Scotland. Scrumhalf Ben Vellacott played age-grade rugby for Scotland before being called into England’s wider training squad for the last Six Nations. The 23-year-old Gloucester player was not capped by England and is another Townsend is talking to, with a view to pulling on the dark blue jersey.