Darcy Graham joins GB Sevens for SVNS Bordeaux finale with core status at stake

Darcy Graham, Scotland’s all-time leading try-scorer, has joined the Great Britain Sevens squad in Bordeaux for the final stop of the SVNS World Championship, with GB fighting to retain core status on the SVNS Series.

Graham last competed in the shortened format between 2016 and 2018, including at the Commonwealth Games, before committing full-time to the XV-a-side game. Since then he has earned 55 Test caps, appeared at two Rugby World Cups, and in the 2026 Six Nations overtook Duhan van der Merwe as Scotland’s record try-scorer with a brace in a 50-40 win over France. He also crossed once for the British & Irish Lions last July after being called in as an injury replacement.

GB Sevens captain Carlton Kerr said Graham’s arrival has already lifted the camp. “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,” Kerr told RugbyPass in Bordeaux. “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.”

The stakes could hardly be higher for the side. GB sit last in the overall standings but remain mathematically capable of finishing as high as seventh. The top eight teams will qualify for the 2026/27 SVNS 1 campaign, while the bottom four will be relegated and required to work their way back through the lower tiers under World Rugby’s new three-tier model.

GB’s path in Bordeaux is far from straightforward. They open pool play at Stade Atlantique against World Championship leaders South Africa, before facing Fiji — who finished second in the regular season — and then Kenya. Kenya sit eighth and are on course to become the first men’s side to earn core status via SVNS 2.

Current bottom four sides Uruguay, Germany, the USA and Great Britain would need to win, or come close to winning, the Bordeaux event to meaningfully climb the standings. Kerr acknowledged the pressure directly: “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.”

Graham’s experience at the highest level of the XV-a-side game, combined with his earlier sevens background, makes him an unusual asset for a GB side that needs both quality and confidence heading into the most consequential weekend of their season.