Darcy seeks to iron out the rough spots
HE’S the youngest member of the Scotland squad but that doesn’t mean Darcy Graham is going to be given an easy ride — from himself or his team-mates.
The 22-year-old winger is a self-confessed perfectionist and thus was fairly damning in his own assessment of his performance in the victory over Samoa, which kick-started the Scots’ World Cup campaign.
That he didn’t add to his five tries for his country appears to have been a particular bugbear yet there’s little doubt the Edinburgh star helped stretch the Samoan defence in the vital 34-0 Pool A win.
Off the pitch, he has a role to play, too. And while team-mate Stuart Hogg was handed a cuddly toy mascot to carry around while on the British and Irish Lions tour in 2013 as the baby of the group, Graham has found his duties to be rather more varied.
‘I get all the fun jobs,’ said a smiling Graham. ‘It’s the team guitar (that I have to look after). Sean Maitland is good and Duncan Taylor loves it.
‘I also had to iron the shirts of the four or five boys who were going to the World Cup opening ceremony.’
Now he’s looking to iron out the creases in his own performance — with Graham having come off the bench in the opening debacle against Ireland before being handed Tommy Seymour’s starting jersey for the Samoa match.
‘I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too pleased with my own individual performance,’ said Graham of the game against the South Sea Islanders. ‘I expected better of myself the other night.
‘I dropped one ball, I had a try-scoring opportunity off one scrum. I made a couple of mistakes and they ate away at me after the game.
‘During the game I was fine because my focus is on getting the win for the team but I put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect in every game I play. You don’t get games like that, I guess, but that’s just how I am.
‘Stuart McInally said to me afterwards to enjoy the win and enjoy the time being with the team but, as I said, I am very hard on myself.
‘My mistakes weren’t major, but I was unhappy nevertheless and as I want to be the best player I can be. Although I wasn’t happy, a win is a win and we now move on to the Russia game which is huge for us.’
Graham is around the same age as current World Cup squad members Adam Hastings, Scott Cummings, Blair Kinghorn, Zander Fagerson and Jamie Ritchie and they all played together in the same Scotland Under-20 team.
Having his pals from the Scotland age-grade side that he knows so well alongside him in Japan has made things easier for him to settle.
‘Yes, there’s quality there and in my first year in the Scotland Under-20s there were loads of us like Blair, Jamie, Scott, Zander, Adam,’ said Graham.
‘It is good fun to have them here and it’s nice coming through with these guys and seeing the boys progress and watching them grow and get to this World Cup.
‘It’s good to see. The boys have worked hard and they deserve to be here. You don’t get to the World Cup easily.
‘There are plenty of more experienced players here too to turn to for advice and I really look up to the likes of Finn Russell and Greig Laidlaw.
‘Greig has been huge and he’s always there to help me, especially as a Border boy he has really looked after me.’
Then there is, of course, Hogg. Although there is only a five-year age difference, Graham idolised him when both were growing up in Hawick and now finds himself playing in the same Scotland starting team at the World Cup.
One of the highlights of the drubbing of Samoa was Hogg’s long-range drop goal, which didn’t surprise Graham one little bit.
‘He is always giving that a go in practice,’ he continued. ‘Hoggy and Finn always have a crack, just before and after training when they practise taking them from halfway and from as far out as that. It’s just part of the warm-up.
‘It was a hell of a kick from Hoggy against Samoa and I think it was just spur of the moment for him and he went for it.
‘He backed himself and it came off, so fair play to him as it was an incredible effort but he always has things like that in his locker.’