'It was massive for my development' - Graham praises rugby sevens

Scotland wing Darcy Graham was enthused about the return of professional rugby sevens to the country.

In October it was confirmed by Scottish Rugby that the union had taken oversight of the Great Britain Sevens programme – headed up by former Scotland 7s head coach Ciaran Beattie – that will compete on the HSBC SVNS World Series.

Six Scottish men’s players were contracted as part of the announcement, with Finn Callaghan, Matt Davidson, Roan Frostwick, Jacob Henry, Damien Hoyland and Josh Radcliffe handed full-time deals.

While Graham now has 50 Test caps and 34 tries for Scotland – and was a tourist with the 2025 British & Irish Lions – the 28-year-old was once a regular with Scotland 7s between 2017 and 2018.

Looking back, Graham credits that time spent trotting the globe as a major part of his success and hopes that Scotland can reap the benefits of professional rugby sevens returning to its borders.

“It’s class that we are bringing Scotland’s sevens back,” Graham said. “It was massive for my development. It was huge for me. I don’t think I’d be here right now if it weren’t for sevens.

“I learnt so much from it. It’s good to see them bringing that programme back. We’ll see the benefit of that.”

Much like his own time with Scotland 7s programme, this new latest edition of the programme has been created with the development of the country’s young talent in mind.

For the team’s first stop in Dubai, Edinburgh Rugby and Glasow Warriors Academy trio Rory McHaffie, Ollie Duncan and Brent Jackson have all been selected.

With players able to gain exposure to high level of competition, their development can be accelerated, with the efforts of years gone by already smattered across Gregor Townsend’s current Scotland squad.

“You look at the (Scotland) squad now, at how many boys have come through, and there’s me, Blair (Kinghorn), George Horne and Maggie (Magnus Bradbury) played a bit,” Graham said.

“There are a lot of boys in the team that played sevens in the World Series. It can only be a good thing, especially when we’ve only got two pro teams.

“It can turn into our third pro team, and we can just chuck some young boys in there and go and see how they get on because it’s a different level out there.

“The athletes are incredible. You have to defend so much space, and you learn a lot about yourself, and you do learn a lot out there. I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am without that programme.”