Darcy Graham’s return a boost for Edinburgh and Scotland as winger plays 71 minutes of Challenge Cup win

Aside from a bonus-point victory which puts them back in the mix for qualification for the round of 16, the other big positive in Edinburgh’s 34-21 win over Castres was the return of Darcy Graham.

Edinburgh's Darcy Graham in the thick of the action against Castres after replacing Harry Paterson in the ninth minute of the 34-21 win in the Challenge Cup. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

The talismanic winger had not played since limping out of Scotland’s World Cup defeat by Ireland on October 7 but returned to the fray earlier than expected in the Challenge Cup tie at Hive Stadium.

Sean Everitt, the Edinburgh head coach, had intended to give Graham 20-30 minutes off the bench against the French side but when Harry Paterson departed with a head injury after nine minutes Graham was thrust into action and played his part as the home side triumphed with tries from Duhan van der Merwe, two, Wes Goosen, Ali Price and Matt Currie. Graham looked lively enough without having the opportunity to embark on too many trademark runs but his availability after knee and hip injuries is a huge boost for club and country.

"He was busy, wasn't he?” said Stevie Lawrie, Edinburgh’s assistant coach. “He was making those wee half-breaks but they managed to shut him down in the main. I thought Duhan might have passed it to him for that walk-in try.”

"He had that moment of madness on that offload but we’ll let him away with it,” added Lawrie, referring to a risky attempted pass by Graham as Edinburgh defended deep in the second half.

The home side did the bulk of their good work with the wind at their backs in the first half, scoring four tries to go in at the interval 27-7 ahead. Castres came back strongly after the break, adding two tries through replacements Wayan de Benedittis and Leone Nakarawa to the first-half effort from Antoine Bouzerand, but it wasn’t enough to earn a bonus point, which pleased Lawrie, although he was frustrated but his team’s second-half showing.

“It’s always tough when you turn around and you’re into the wind,” said Lawrie. “Part of the strategy is to hold the ball a little bit longer and you can’t be loose with it so I think we’ll reflect hard on that second half.”

Castres were reduced to 14 men as early as the ninth minute when centre Adrea Cocagi was red-carded for the head-to-head tackle which injured Paterson. They also had prop Aurelien Azar sent to the sin-bin in the first half.