'It’s a better stadium anyway': Darcy Graham on Murrayfield return

Edinburgh wing Darcy Graham is relishing the chance to bring Glasgow back to Murrayfield on Saturday after being left underwhelmed by the Hampden experience.

Warriors moved their home derby game from their compact Scotstoun ground to the national football stadium both last weekend and last year in order to attract a bigger crowd.

But Graham is not a fan of Hampden and prefers playing at the national rugby stadium, where his side have won the last two stagings of the fixture.

“Yeah, it will give us confidence,” he said of facing their inter-city rivals at Murrayfield.

“It’s easier coming back here. It’s a better stadium anyway, with more atmosphere than Hampden. So I’m excited to have over 30,000 fans here and hopefully we can get it closer to 40,000 by the weekend.”

Edinburgh are aiming to overturn a 12-point deficit in their quest to claim a first 1872 Cup since the 2021-22 season after going down 24-12 in an attritional affair at Hampden.

“It was a frustrating game,” said Graham. “As a team we were all hugely frustrated.

“But we’ve had a couple of days to sulk, and then get straight back on the horse and hopefully we’ll right some wrongs this weekend.”

Asked if beating a side of Glasgow’s calibre by more than 12 points felt achievable, Graham said: “Yeah, of course. If we can get an early try, it blows the game wide open.

“But first of all, it’s about winning the game – the league points are massive. Then off the back of that, what happens will happen.

“We’ll look at that closer to the time, but really it’s just about trying to win this game. Trying to get five points from the game is the goal, really.

“You know what you’re going to get with Glasgow: they’re a tough team, they’re playing well and they’re a cohesive team. They’ve got world-class players all over the team, so we’ll just have to be on it from minute one to minute 80.

“We need to go out there and fire some shots in attack, and that’s been a big work-on for this weekend, because we know we’ve got the defence part there. It’s just how we can tie it in with the attack and be more clinical in that finish zone.”