Darcy Graham has his eye on Stuart Hogg record but knows France will come all guns blazing

It was like he'd never been away. Eight months after his last Scotland appearance, Darcy Graham returned to the national side with a try double in the 25-13 win over Italy.

Scotland's Darcy Graham at full time after the 25-13 win over Italy at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. The winger scored two tries. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The prolific winger now has 18 tries from 34 Tests and his sights are set firmly on Stuart Hogg's all-time Scottish record of 27. He has a fair bit to go catch his fellow Hawick man but at 26, time is on Graham's side. He's not the only one chasing the try record. Duhan van der Merwe - 17 tries in 28 games but an absentee on Saturday - is also eyeing Hogg's tally. “Me and Duhi are hunting it down so we are having a wee competition between each other,” said Graham. “I am one ahead of him. Ten more to go.”

Graham's long absence from international rugby was caused by a serious knee injury sustained while playing for Edinburgh against Munster last December. He had just come off a successful Autumn Nations campaign which had seen score four tries in four games including a hat-trick against Argentina. Hopes of back to back trebles for Scotland were quashed when he was replaced by Blair Kinghorn after 71 minutes on Saturday but the Edinburgh flyer had no complaints. “Nah, I did my job and my back tightened up so I was ready to come off and fire into next week.”

One of the most pleasing aspects of the win over Italy was the performance of Ben Healy, and Graham was a beneficiary of some of the stand-off’s exemplary kicking from hand. The winger almost got on the end of one of Healy’s punts in the sixth minute but stumbled as he chased the ball to the corner. But there was no mistake shortly afterwards when, after some slick Scotland passing, Healy floated a kick to the corner which Graham gratefully accepted and touched down. His second try came early in the second half when he latched on to Ali Price’s pass and dived over following a good carry from Stafford McDowall.

Townsend thought McDowall had a solid debut defensively but would have liked to have seen him get more ball, although he did note the inside centre’s involvement in both Graham’s tries. “I just feel that we didn’t get the backs involved enough,” said the Scotland coach. “I said to Pete Horne in the changing room it looked like the back line went well, but we needed to get them more ball. So some of our set-piece plays didn’t get to the phase where we set up the backs to potentially have an opportunity. On a drier day I’m sure they would have had even more influence.”

The rain mixed with a bit of close season rustiness made for a ragged first half and Scotland made a number of handling errors. Like the Six Nations game in March, Italy proved hard to shake off. They led 6-5 at half-time thanks to two Tommaso Allan penalties and just when the home side felt they had put some distance between them with Graham’s second score, Montanna Ioane’s converted try brought Italy back to within two points as the game entered its final quarter. Scotland finished strongly, with substitute Josh Bayliss scoring his first international try in the final play of the game.

Rory Darge, captaining Scotland for the first time, can take pride from the way he played and handled the occasion. At 23, he is a youthful skipper but led by example, as he said he would. Another 23-year-old, Cameron Henderson, made his Scotland debut from the bench, and while he only had 17 minutes on the field, he could emerge as an important second-row option for Townsend who has lost Jonny Gray to injury. The match also marked the return to the starting line-up of Chris Harris, Ali Price and Rory Sutherland, Test Lions as recently as 2021 but who were peripheral figures in the recent Six Nations. Harris caught the eye with his diligence in defence.

Stuart McInally was another comeback kid, making his first Scotland appearance since the 2022 Six Nations, and Townsend was impressed with second-half contribution. The hooker has announced his intention to retire from rugby after the World Cup and Townsend said he is more motivated than ever. “He’s said he’s in the best shape of his life physically, and he’s going to do all he can to get to the World Cup,” said the coach.

Darcy Graham is all smiles after scoring his and Scotland's second try in the win over Italy in the Summer Nations Series at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Townsend and his players know it will be far tougher against France, who Scotland will play home and away over the next two Saturdays. And for Graham, there is a determination to be involved in all the warm-up matches after he missed out on the Six Nations.

“I am not hugely satisfied with the Italy game even although I got two tries,” said the winger. “I made a few errors out there. I will watch it closely and see how I can improve but 100 per cent we need to be better against France. They are one of the world’s best and have a home tournament so their confidence will be high. They will come over here and get their World Cup campaign started and build their confidence as well. It will be exciting next week. They will come here all guns blazing, you know the French. They have so much flair and will be excited to get back out on the pitch as well. I want to play every game from now until the end of the World Cup. My aim is to try and get the starting jersey every time. I want to pull on the Scotland jersey, no matter when it is, where it is. I love doing it.”

Scorers: Scotland: Tries: Graham 2, Bayliss. Cons: Healy 2. Pens: Healy 2.

Italy: Try: Ioane. Con: Allan. Pens: Allan 2.

Scotland: O Smith; D Graham (B Kinghorn 71), C Harris (C Redpath 57), S McDowall, K Steyn; B Healy, A Price (J Dobie 57); R Sutherland (J Bhatti 45), G Turner (S McInally 45), M Walker (J Sebastian 45), S Skinner, S Cummings (C Henderson 62), L Crosbie (J Bayliss 68), R Darge (c), M Fagerson.

Italy: L Pani; P Bruno (A Garbisi 51), T Menoncello, L Morisi (F Mori 55), M Ioane; T Allan, M Page-Relo (G Da Re 62); F Zani (D Fischetti 51), E Faiva (M Manfredi 55), P Ceccarelli (F Alongi 60), D Sisi (E Iachizzi 55), A Zambonin, F Ruzza (c), M Zuliani (L Cannone 51), T Halafihi.

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (NZ).

Attendance: 49,977.