Scotland boss Townsend celebrates 'living history' as record-breaking wingers cut loose
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Scotland coach Gregor Townsend says fans are lucky to be witnessing “living history” as free-scoring wingers Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham inspire each other to record-breaking feats. But he revealed that four-try hero Graham had failed a head injury assessment after being replaced in this evening’s thumping of Fiji, putting the Man of the Match’s involvement against South Africa next weekend in doubt.
Graham bagged four tries on a day when Scotland scored eight in total, briefly drawing himself level with Van der Merwe on top of the all-time list with 28 overall. But Van der Merwe broke clear with his 29th touchdown as the Scots romped to a 57-17 win in the first of their autumn tests.
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Hide AdTownsend said neither man was fixated on the individual honour. But he’s enjoying watching them continue to top each other, saying: “It's fantastic that we're experiencing this living history, that we've got two players who have still got a lot of rugby ahead of them setting try-scoring records. I think Ian Smith from 1925 had held that for so many years, but now we're seeing it broken every game or every other game that those two are playing.
“They're not driving each other on and trying to look for tries. They're doing the right thing for their team. I thought Duhan did a lot of work to set up other people today, his kick chase was very good. He obviously could have scored another one near the end and their tries are often scored by the work of other people too.”
Graham’s individual performance in his first Scotland outing for 13 months, following a series of injuries, had Townsend purring, the head coach saying: “Darcy was outstanding. He scores different types of tries.
“His angles of running before he gets the ball are very hard to pick up. His angles of running when he gets the ball and his strength to get out of tackles is up there with the best in the world. So, yeah, it was not only great to see him back, but even better seeing him score on tries.
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Hide Ad“The crowd certainly feeds off of Darcy's energy and he feeds off that. I think they love his toughness. Those tries are tough tries, he has to work really hard. You see the reaction when anybody scores a try, but when it's a Darcy try, everybody is up there, so pleased for him. Particularly after what he's been through.”
Confirming that Graham had undergone a head injury assessment when removed to a standing ovation after 65 minutes, Townsend said: “I think he failed that HIA 1, so we'll now have to wait and see HIA 2. If he passes that then he'll have an HIA 3 in two days' time. So I think the initial HIA was failed, that's why he didn't come back on the field.”