The Scottish Mail on Sunday

SCOTS RARING TO GO AS RUGBY RETURNS —

Graham ready to put injury nightmare firmly in past

- By Calum Crowe

DARCY GRAHAM knows a thing or two about landing a knockout blow on a rival. Indeed, his breakthrou­gh year of 2019 saw him excel in doing so for both club and country. Two tries against England at Twickenham in most miraculous of comebacks. Another brace for Edinburgh against Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfiel­d last December.

‘That was definitely the best attacking performanc­e from us this season,’ says Graham of the bonuspoint win over Glasgow. ‘We’re playing more expansive rugby now and we’ve got the players to do it.’

Sandwiched in between those two outings was his first taste of a World Cup, a huge moment for a young man who would crawl over broken glass to play for his country.

More recently, though, Graham has been learning to roll with the punches after an injury nightmare saw him miss the whole of the Six Nations earlier this year.

Ruled out on the eve of the championsh­ip with what he describes as a ‘freak’ injury to his knee in training, it was not easy to sit and watch from the sidelines.

‘I find it very hard to watch rugby when I’m injured, especially Scotland games,’ says the 23-year-old Hawick man. ‘That Ireland game (Six Nations opener), I found it really hard to watch.

‘I was lucky because I got a serious injury, but I actually never missed a whole load of rugby. I only really missed four games.’

If lockdown brought an extended period of inactivity for players all over the country, then that applied tenfold to Graham.

His last game was Edinburgh’s 36-0 victory over Agen at Murrayfiel­d on Saturday, January 18. He scored four tries in that match.

His career had known nothing but a positive trajectory. When the first major speedbump came along, it almost left him in tears.

‘I don’t mind getting injured in a game when I have put my body on the line,’ says Graham, who will make his return against Glasgow Warriors next weekend.

‘But if it is a freak accident when I slip or someone puts their knee in front of my knee and that is me out for ages, then it is tougher to take. It started to get to me a bit.

‘It was pretty tough. I was just hitting my form going into the Six Nations and I felt I was in a good place.

‘My body was feeling good, I was feeling decent and I had my head into going out there and having a huge Six Nations.

‘To get injured before the first game, I was gutted. To miss the whole thing was heartbreak­ing.

‘My dad is always saying to me that rugby has so many highs and lows that you have to enjoy the highs when they are there because there will always be a low in the road.

‘I am so passionate. I’m a boy from Hawick and all I ever wanted to do was play for Hawick and Scotland, so to have the latter pulled away from me for a spell was difficult.

‘I ended up re-doing it (the injury) the week before Italy (v Scotland), so I was probably a few weeks away at that stage.

‘I didn’t rush back to get back for that Italy game, but everything was going so smoothly. I’d had no problems with it.

‘Obviously I got a lot longer than I expected to come back to full fitness. Selfishly, lockdown came at a good time for me.

‘It’s feeling great now. I’m flying in training and I was probably ready to play two weeks ago. I’m very keen to get back. When you get a break, you definitely do fall back in love with the game.’

With Graham set to be unleashed against Glasgow, Edinburgh will embark on what could prove a monumental few weeks for the club.

They have every chance of securing a home semi-final in the Pro14 — and also have a European Challenge Cup quarter-final with Bordeaux to look forward to next month.

The battle for the 1872 Cup is finely poised at 1-1. Currently top of Conference B in the Pro14, Edinburgh will be looking to cement their status as top dogs in Scottish rugby.

‘We’re focusing everything on Glasgow,’ says Graham. ‘We’re not into the semi-finals yet. We need to perform and turn up on the day.

‘Glasgow are a really good team. They’re solid, strong and they’ve got great attacking threats. We need to be defensivel­y sorted and be ready for them.

‘Our big focus is to win these next two games which would set us up nicely for a semi-final. There’s always a point to prove with the Edinburgh v Glasgow games.

‘It’s massively important. We’ve never been in this position before, but it would be huge for the city to get a home semi-final.

‘This first Glasgow game is a must-win, do-or-die, so it’s putting a bit of pressure on us. We know we’ve got to go out and perform. It’ll be all guns blazing to get the job done.’

The Glasgow defence will no doubt have their hands full in trying to combat the threat posed by Graham and his fellow flyer Duhan van der Merwe on the other wing.

Van der Merwe is now qualified to play for Scotland and Graham

‘I AM FLYING IN TRAINING AND WAS ALL READY TO PLAY TWO WEEKS AGO’

believes his Edinburgh team-mate can go on to make a huge impact at Test level.

‘I love having that competitio­n for places,’ he says. ‘If you don’t have that competitio­n, then you kind of just get a bit relaxed.

‘If you start just expecting that you’re going to get into the team, then you’re not going to perform well. You need boys chasing you all the time.

‘Duhan will add huge strength to the team. He’s a world-class player — and he’s only going to get better.

‘He’s night and day now compared to when he first started with us a few years ago. He’s a much more complete player.’

Graham expressed concern, however, at the general state of rugby back home in the Borders. He also feels the SRU missed a trick in how they devised the teams for the Super6.

‘I am a bit worried, to be fair,’ he says. ‘It’s quite a difficult one. There just aren’t the numbers now in terms of boys actually playing.

‘Taking it back to when I was playing Under-16s at school, I used to train Tuesday, Thursday, Friday — and then play a game on the Saturday and another game on the Sunday, as well.

‘I look at my brother at that age just a couple of years ago — he was only getting one or two rugby games per month, if that. They’re just not getting the amount of games.

‘I think they (the SRU) missed a trick with the Super6. They missed a trick by not having the likes of an Under-25s or Under-26s team. That was a big one.

‘As soon as you finish Under-20s, there’s nothing. If you don’t get pro contract once you finish at Under-20s, you’ve got nothing to go for. It’s very difficult after that to break in.’

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 ??  ?? Graham scores a try for Edinburgh in a win over Montpellie­r in 2019 GLORY HUNTING:
Graham scores a try for Edinburgh in a win over Montpellie­r in 2019 GLORY HUNTING:

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