‘It’s a lift’: Darcy Graham already making an impact with GB Sevens

Scotland and British & Irish Lions winger Darcy Graham has given the Great Britain Sevens side a major boost ahead of the SVNS World Championship stop in Bordeaux, returning to rugby’s shorter format ahead of the season finale. 

Graham represented Scotland on what is now known as the HSBC SVNS Series from 2016 to 2018 and was part of the squad that competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. But after making the full-time switch to 15s, the flyer reached record-breaking heights with the national team. 

The 55-Test winger has played at two Rugby World Cups and recently became the all-time leading try-scorer for Scotland. Graham went clear of teammate Duhan van der Merwe on the try-scoring charts, touching down for a double in a 50-40 win over France in the 2026 Six Nations. 

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Great Britain are last on the overall standings but are still mathematically a chance of finishing as high as seventh, which would see them retain core status. The top eight will qualify for the 2026/27 SVNS 1 campaign, while the bottom four will need to work their way back up to the top flight. 

Graham, who scored one try for the British & Irish Lions last July after being called in as an injury replacement, has already given the GB squad a lift. There is a video on SVNS Series socials of Graham training with the squad in northwestern France. 

“All the boys are obviously excited to meet him. A few of the boys knew him from before. He’s fit in like a hand in a glove since he’s come in, he’s completely down to Earth, he’s happy to chip in,” GB Sevens captain Carlton Kerr told RugbyPass in Bordeaux. 

“Obviously he’s got sevens experience in the past as well, sort of 2016 to 2018. I think it’s fun for him to get back to it as well. He’s quite excited for the weekend. 

“From our perspective, it’s a lift to have somebody like his character in the group. I’m sure we can learn from him and I’m sure he’ll be doing the same, learning from a sevens perspective from us as well so it’ll be good fun.” 

No team is mathematically out of the top eight race heading into the final event of the season. But current bottom four sides Uruguay, Germany, the USA and Great Britain would need to practically win SVNS Bordeaux if they are to move surge up the standings.

GB have been handed a tough pool draw ahead of the Bordeaux event, and it couldn’t start much tougher for them on day one at Stade Atlantique. They will take on World Championship leaders South Africa in the first round of pool matches. 

Fiji, who finished second on the regular season standings, will be their second opponent, before taking on Kenya. Kenya are eighth on the ladder and could become the first men’s team to earn core status out of SVNS 2, as part of World Rugby’s new three-tier model. 

“You look at the standings, it’s incredibly important. There’s no shying away from that from our perspective… over the past two tournaments we haven’t performed at a level that we know we’re capable of or perhaps we would’ve liked,” Kerr said. 

“One win across both of those weekends is tough on anybody’s perspective. A win rate of 10 per cent, if you looked at that on a real black and white basis, you wouldn’t have too much to be proud of. 

“But from an individual performance perspective and a team performance perspective, we’ve analysed that, we’ve got it down to a more granular detail. We know what we’re going after this weekend. 

“Obviously you can’t put the cart before the horse but I think we’ve got some more wins in us in Bordeaux.”