Edinburgh’s Graham and Glasgow Warriors’ Darge, 25, are the only Scots in the elite XV chosen, decided by a media vote from a shortlist of ten per position, and they’re joined by five South Africans, five Irishmen and three Welsh players. Graham’s selection follows his comeback from an injury-hit 2023-24 season to help Edinburgh finish their regular campaign seventh in the table, on 49 points from 18 fixtures, and make it to the play-offs for the first time in three years, followed by a 42-33 last-eight knockout away to Pretoria’s Bulls in South Africa on Saturday. The capital city side also reached the last four of the European Professional Club Rugby Challenge Cup, going out to Bath at the start of last month via a 39-24 loss at home. The Scotland right-winger, at Edinburgh since 2017, scored 15 tries over the course of the season just ended, seven for the national team and eight for his club. Openside flanker Darge’s season, unlike his Scottish teammate Graham’s, isn’t over yet as Warriors face Leinster away in the URC’s play-off semi-finals in Dublin this Saturday, with kick-off at 2.45pm, as head coach Franco Smith team continue their defence of the title they won 21-16 away to Cape Town’s Stormers in South Africa last year, bidding to become the first club to win the competition two years running. Darge, with the Melrose-based Knights for the 2019-20 Fosroc Super6 season, has been with Glasgow since 2021 after a year at Edinburgh as a teamamte of Graham’s there too. Graham and Darge’s selection follows two Scots being picked last year as well, Edinburgh’s Jamie Ritchie and Glasgow’s Sione Tuipulotu. Nine of the championship’s 16 teams are represented in 2025’s elite XV, with Bulls and Munster supplying three each. The Bulls players selected are props Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Wilco Louw and No 8 Cameron Hanekom. Munster’s representatives are centre Tom Farrell, scrum-half Craig Casey and lock Tadhg Beirne. Beirne, Hanekom and Louw are all named in the URC’s team of the season for the second year in a row. Also picked are Leinster’s Jamie Osborne and Rudolph Snyman, Andre Esterhuizen of Durban’s Sharks, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu of Cape Town’s Stormers, Jac Morgan of Swansea’s Ospreys and Blair Murray and Marnus van der Merwe of Llanelli’s Scarlets.