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The parts of his game four-try Darcy Graham wasn't thrilled about
By Liam Heagney
Time was practically up when RugbyPass finally fleetingly caught up alone with Darcy Graham in the Saturday night mixed zone in Lille. Scotland’s four-try star had understandably been in demand and a multitude of interviews had already been conducted when he made his final pit stop, chatting politely for a couple of minutes despite a hurry-up “bus” shout from dressed and ready teammates such as Chris Harris who were already headed for the exit.
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Graham’s performance against Pool B minnows Romania had been popularly received. Not just by Scotland fans jubilant that 84 unanswered points were scored to set up next Saturday’s knockout pool showdown with Ireland in Paris.
Graham had also been a canny weekend four pick in the Rugby World Cup Fantasy game that rugby supporters the world over had been playing the whole way through September and the Scottish winger’s all-action effort at Stade Mauroy was gold.
His whopping 195-point performance made him the online game’s best-rated player so far in the tournament and his overall 251 points total pushed him ahead of the previous leader, the 231-point Bundee Aki.
Does the Scotland team follow the ratings? “I don’t think many of the boys have been on it, (but) I have been having a few messages,” he admitted before learning that he was now top of the charts and the World Cup’s most valuable fantasy pick. “Oh really, oh wow. Incredible. I’ll take that.”
To those of you who chose Darcy Graham in their fantasy team this weekend #fantasyrugby #SCOvROM pic.twitter.com/h8qro0ZQy5
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 30, 2023
Let’s quickly get down to brass tacks, which of his four tries in Lille – a scoring spree that included a 19-minute first-half try hat-trick – was his favourite?
“The first one, was it? I cut off Ali (Price) and then from (ran) halfway. I enjoyed that one but they are all special and to score for your country is always a special moment.
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“That [scoring tries] is my job. We all have a lot of jobs to do in the team, that is one of my jobs. Yeah, it’s kind of next job after that.”
Saturday night’s effort nudged him from sixth to joint-second in the all-time Scotland try-scoring list, his overall 24-try tally taking him level with Tony Stanger and Ian Smith and leaving him poised behind Stuart Hogg’s landmark of 27.
Match day skipper Grant Gilchrist had earlier backed Graham to clinch the record. “If I was a betting man I would say yes; some of the tries he scored tonight were truly world-class,” he quipped, an endorsement backed by coach Gregor Townsend.
“He’s a great finisher, his footwork for his fourth try was incredible. He had a few assists in there too. It was brilliant to see.”
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And yet, Graham, who was set to get ice to help mend a wee bang on the calf that resulted in his left leg being bandaged post-game, admitted to RugbyPass that his effort versus the Romanians wasn’t the complete display and that there were elements which needed working on ahead of taking on Ireland at Stade de France.
“There is always more, you can always get better,” he remarked. “I don’t think it was a 100 per cent performance. I made a few mistakes. Didn’t hit a few rucks quick enough, got turned over as well. I need to squeeze them out of my game so there is more to come.”
Is he always this critical of himself post-game? “I’ll enjoy tonight. I played well but I will look at my game tomorrow [Sunday] and see how I can make better decisions or make better options and make sure how I can stop getting turned over. I’ll look at that tomorrow and see what I can improve on.”
It’s all or nothing for the third-place Scotland versus the No1-ranked Irish. They faced off in a pool opener in 2019, the then-fancied Scots imploding 3-27 in Yokohama and going on to make a pool exit with a follow-up loss to host nation Japan.
Another World Cup group loss to Ireland and it will be au revoir for Graham and co at France 2023. “Fingers crossed,” he said, hopeful there won’t be a repeat of four years ago when Scotland failed to fire a shot against Ireland despite being backed to give it a proper lash.
“It’s going to be a hell of a game next week, isn’t it? It’s do or die, it’s a World Cup final for pretty much both teams, so it’s going to be a brutal game, it’s going to be a physical game and it’s going to be one hell of a game.
“The fans will be getting into the game. The fans were incredible the last two games. They have been in numbers the Scottish fans, so it will hopefully be the same again from them next week.”
With that, it was time for the smiling Graham to grab his things in the dressing room and make the bus back to Scotland’s Lille hotel before Sunday’s trip to base camp in Nice. Next weekend’s moment of truth in Paris beckons. The watching world can’t wait.
The dazzling feet of Darcy Graham 💨#RWC2023 | #SCOvROM pic.twitter.com/u129lCQO6p
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 30, 2023
