The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Wing has incentive to take his chances
Graham his own harshest critic – but is determined to make most of opportunities
Darcy Graham is still buzzing for more opportunities, even after winning his Rugby World Cup spurs against Samoa.
The diminutive wing wasn’t happy with his first performance, and it looks likely he may be one of the players asked to “double-up” and play in both the final two pool games against Russia next Wednesday and Japan just four days later.
He’s got plenty of energy for that, and plenty incentive to want to do well.
“It was great to get my first start in the World Cup, it was massive for me, but I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too pleased with my own individual performance,” he said.
“I made a couple of mistakes and they ate away at me after the game. During the game I was fine because your 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 ever get games like that, I guess, but that’s just how I am.
“(Captain) Stuart Mcinally said to me afterwards to enjoy the win and enjoy the time being with the team, but I am very hard on myself. I made a couple of mistakes, they weren’t major, but I was unhappy nevertheless and I let them eat away at me for a bit.
“I expected better of myself the other night. I dropped one ball, I had a tryscoring opportunity off one scrum. I get annoyed with myself because I want to be the best player I can be.”
Graham’s meteoric rise into the Edinburgh starting team and into the Scotland set-up with five tries in his eight tests so far hasn’t gone to his head, and he’s remaining cool about it all.
“I am really chilled, I am the kind of guy that takes things in his stride,” he said. “Greig Laidlaw said to me before the start that it was just another game of rugby and that kind of stuck with me.
“I wanted to enjoy the occasion. There was pressure on, of course there was, and under that roof it was pretty hot, but we had prepared well.”
The aftermath of the game is a little different for Darcy, but he makes up for lost time.
“The day after games, I sleep most of the day,” he admitted. “I struggle to sleep right after games, I think I was awake until about 4.30am on the Tuesday.
“That’s always the case after games. You have a few coffees and you’re replaying the game in your head, it takes a lot to shut off.”
Graham is helped by having so many of his peers coming through to the national team at the same time as him, with many of his team-mates from two Scotland Under-20 campaigns graduating at the same time.
“It’s quality to see this happen,” he said. “In my first year in the Under 20s there were loads of us: Blair (Kinghorn), Jamie (Ritchie), Scott (Cummings), Zander (Fagerson), Maggie (Bradbury), Adam (Hastings).
“It is good fun to have them all here. It’s nice coming through the years, seeing boys progress and watching them grow.
“There were a lot (of others) from those teams who turned pro and are still coming through.
“The young guys who are here in Japan deserve to be here. You don’t get here easily. You have to be the best to get here and the boys have worked really hard.”