Darcy Graham 'at peace' with Calcutta Cup decision as co-captain gets green light

Russell and Graham suffered a sickening clash of heads when they collided with each other during the Six Nations defeat by Ireland in round two. Both players were treated for concussion but Graham’s injury was more severe. He was tended to on the pitch for several minutes before being put in a neck brace and removed from the field on a medical cart and taken to hospital.

Russell was able to walk off and went on to pass a head injury assessment but the decision was taken not to bring him bang on against Ireland when he seemed confused about certain team moves. Scotland were widely praised for this cautious approach.

Speaking earlier in the week, it was said that both players were “progressing well” and had a chance of playing against England but Townsend has made the call to leave Graham out.

“I'm not a medical expert but obviously one was a bigger incident that required someone to go to hospital, although Darcy was cleared to go home that night,” said Townsend. “And the other one, Finn had passed the standard HIA but just had a memory loss around plays and we made the decision not to put him on. But following that game, he was symptom-free, and cleared every stage that he progressed through – light exercise, the skills, the training, he's been fine. So, every brain injury, every head injury is different. You don't know how players are going to respond but Finn's responded really well.”

Russell’s availability is a considerable boost for Scotland who are chasing an unprecedented fifth victory in a row over England. The stand-off and co-captain has been at the heat of the previous four and seems to relish this fixture.

Kyle Rowe, the Glasgow Warriors winger, will play on the right wing in place of Graham and Townsend said the Edinburgh player was sanguine about missing out.

“I think he was very much accepting and at peace with the decision,” the coach said. “I think sometimes we take the decision out of the players' hands, so they know early enough that that's going to be the case and they're focused on how they get back after that.

“The protocols for any concussion follow either the seven-day or 12-day [return-to-play protocols], and Darcy fell into the 12-day. Twenty-four hours after the injury he became symptom-free which is great. So yes, we could have pushed things on but we just felt with the nature of the injury that it wasn't right for him to come back as quickly as the protocols would have allowed.”

The coach said Graham would be available for Scotland’s round four fixture, against Wales at Murrayfield on March 8.

Townsend added that Russell has been able to play a part in training this week as he made his gradiated return.

“He had contact on Tuesday and then a full session yesterday [Wednesday] which was live so the return to contact was controlled on Tuesday and then we did some tackling in the session yesterday,” said Townsend.

In addition to the inclusion of Rowe, Scotland have made two other changes to the side which lost 32-18 to Ireland, both in the pack. Loosehead prop Pierre Schoeman and blindside flanker Jamie Ritchie both return to the starting XV in place of Rory Sutherland and Matt Fagerson, respectively, with the latter two dropping to the bench which is again comprised of six forwards and two backs.

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