World Cup diary: Winger Darcy Graham pulls the strings for Scotland

Darcy Graham, as the youngest member of the Scotland squad, has been charged with the menial duties. Picture: AFP/Getty

As “tour pup”, Darcy Graham has had a few duties to take care of here in Japan but nothing as strenuous as his Hawick mate Stuart Hogg faced back on the 2013 Lions tour when he had the important and anxious task of being guardian to famous mascot “Bil the Lion”.

“I had to iron some shirts. I had four or five to iron for the guys who went to the opening ceremony,” said the 22-year-old wing. “I’ve also been carrying the guitar about. All the fun jobs.”

Guitar you say? Tell us more… “It’s the team’s guitar,” he explained. “Sean [Maitland] is good on it and Spacey [Duncan Taylor] loves it too.”

Graham may be the youngest in the squad but not by much and he has plenty of contemporaries from the Scotland Under-20 squad of the 2016 junior World Cup in Manchester, when the then full-back scored a famous winning try against Australia.

“There are loads of us [from then, now in Japan]. Blair Kinghorn, Jamie Ritchie, Scott Cummings, Zander Fagerson, Magnus Bradbury and Adam Hastings. It’s good fun. It’s nice coming through the years, seeing boys progress and watching them grow.

“They 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.”

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