Scottish fans welcome the one silver lining to their terrible week

Scottish rugby’s current malaise only worsened on Friday with the announcement that winger Darcy Graham is set to miss the opening rounds of the Six Nations with a knee injury sustained in training this week. 

The 22-year-old Edinburgh back would have very likely started against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on February 1 given the form he is in.

This announcement came a day after it was revealed Finn Russell had been sent home for a “breach of team protocol”. 

Without the tournament even starting, Scotland have already been dealt two hammer-blows, but this has also been met by the pleasing development that Worcester Warriors’ Duncan Weir has been recalled to the squad that will travel to Spain on Sunday. 

There has been a campaign for the fly-half over the past year to be called-up given his good form with Worcester, but it has been to no avail until now.

The 28-year-old has yet to play a game in a Scotland shirt under Gregor Townsend, with his last game being in March 2017 in what was Vern Cotter’s last match. He had played fairly frequently under the Kiwi, but the emergence of Adam Hastings ousted him from the squad. 

With Townsend’s philosophy with Scotland being to play as fast a brand of rugby as possible, Russell has always been better equipped to execute that game plan and he has established himself as one of the top fly-halves in Europe since moving to Racing 92.

However, Weir is as dependable as Russell is flashy, which is equally as important, and while they may stylistically be different, the diminutive ten has become a fan favourite at Sixways.

While he may not necessarily start against Ireland, this call-up for the 27-cap Weir is deserved and it’s at least some good news for Scotland fans to counter what has been a troubling couple of days.

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