Darcy Graham has set his sights firmly on Stuart Hogg’s national try-scoring record after adding another two touchdowns to his own tally on Saturday.
The Edinburgh winger’s brace in the 25-13 win over Italy at Murrayfield took his total to 18. That is nine shy of Hogg’s all-time record, but the statistics suggest that Graham is well capable of surpassing that mark some time before his career ends.
Hogg, who like Graham played for his home town of Hawick before turning professional, announced his retirement from all rugby earlier this month at the age of 31, having previously said he would hang up his boots after the Rugby World Cup. He ended his career with 27 tries from exactly 100 appearances for Scotland over a 12-year span from 2012.
Edinburgh winger Graham, who turned 26 in June, has racked up his 18 touchdowns in just 34 internationals. An ever-present threat of injury hangs over every rugby player’s career, and Graham has not been immune to such worries, having missed out on this year’s Six Nations Championship because of injury.
Nonetheless, it would appear that time is on his side in his bid to set a new national record - unless, that is, he is beaten to it by his clubmate Duhan van der Merwe. The 28-year-old, who did not play at the weekend, has 17 tries from a mere 28 caps. “Hoggy has been massive and what he has done in a Scotland jersey is incredible,” Graham said. “He has left a hole. He’s a big figure in Scottish rugby and everybody younger looked up to him.
“Now me and Duhi are hunting his record down - we’re having a wee competition between each other. I’m one ahead of him. Ten more to go.”
Graham’s two tries against the Italians were simple enough by his standards: the first saw him collect a Ben Healy punt to the right corner while the second was a short-range dash off the back of a dominant scrum. Nonetheless, they were central elements of a reassuring afternoon for the winger on his return to the international arena, and his aim now is to remain in the team not for the three subsequent warm-up matches - against France home and away and then Georgia at Murrayfield - but also for as long as their involvement in the World Cup itself goes on.
“I want to play every game from now until the end of the World Cup,” he continued. 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 or where it is. I love doing it. I want to get a bit of form, get my confidence back up and have a good World Cup.
“I’m not hugely satisfied with the Italy game even though I got two tries. I made a few errors out there. I will look at it closely and see how I can improve.
“One hundred 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. They will come here all guns blazing.”
Graham was taken off inside the final 10 minutes against the Italians when he might have had a chance of a hat-trick, but he had no complaints. “I did my job and my back tightened up, so I was ready to come off and fire into this week,” he concluded.
