Darcy Graham

Darcy Graham is the reason Scotland stopped apologising for picking small wings.

He is elusive in a way that does not translate to video analysis: the step is late, the acceleration out of it is immediate, and defenders who have watched the footage still miss him. Scotland’s try count over the last several seasons is disproportionately his.

The aerial work is the surprise. For a player his size he competes and wins under the high ball more often than the physics suggest he should, which is mostly timing and partly refusing to accept the premise.

Injuries have been the recurring interruption, and Scotland have looked notably blunter in the periods without him.

He came out of Hawick, which in Scottish rugby is close to a guarantee of a certain kind of player — quick, hard, and entirely unbothered by the size of the opponent. Scotland’s attack is built to get him the ball in space, because when they manage it the game usually changes.