THE limelight may have been hogged by Darcy Graham in Edinburgh’s first two matches of the season thanks to his total of five tries, but that should not obscure the fact that the team’s attack as a whole has hit the ground running in the URC.

The capital club began their campaign with a seven-try rout of the Dragons, and then ran in another five – albeit in defeat – against the Bulls last weekend. And besides Graham, only one player has scored more than one touchdown – the man on the opposite wing, Damien Hoyland.

Although he has been part of the Edinburgh squad for some time, and made his Scotland debut as far back as 2015, Hoyland is still only 28. After having his career punctuated by injury for several seasons, he is now benefitting from a long spell of full fitness and, by his own admission, is enjoying his rugby properly again. At the same time, however, he insists he is far from satisfied with his own current form.

“I’m delighted, touch wood, that I’ve started the season injury-free,” Hoyland said from South Africa, where Edinburgh are preparing for Saturday’s match against the Stormers, last year’s champions, in Cape Town. “I’m just loving being able to train and play after so many seasons of not being available. It’s definitely a win for me just to be fit - I’m loving it.

“I feel I got a bit of good form towards the end of last season. To be perfectly honest I haven’t started [this season] as well as I would have liked. I just want to get the ball in my hands, and in the last few games I’ve not had as many touches as I would have liked - that’s a work-on for me.

“I’m feeling good when I get the ball in my hands. I’m quite hard on myself, but I feel that I’ve got a lot to give and a lot to offer. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and putting out what I know I’m capable of doing.”

Hoyland believes that Edinburgh as a whole are capable of doing quite a lot this season, thanks in large part to the increasing depth of the squad. “It’s a massive season, and we’re supremely confident we can do well this season,” he continued. “We have great strength in depth. When some are away on international duty we have two or three guys in each position that can put in a massive shift. We are really confident for the season ahead and we have the game plan and players are excited to see where we end up.

“Every individual has different strengths. We all stick to the game plan we have and that is quite an expansive game. So it’s important that whoever is available to play plays that kind of style. We are fortunate enough that we do have players who can do that across the whole squad.

“It’s awesome. We create a lot of opportunities, don’t we? We’ve started with an exciting brand of rugby and I’m enjoying being part of that.”

Edinburgh will surely need some more of that brand of rugby if they are to have a realistic chance of upsetting the Stormers, and it would help considerably if Graham is able to maintain the form he has shown in the past two matches. It has to be an inspiration to play in the same team as someone who poses such a serious threat to opposition defences, but for someone who plays in the same position there may well be a touch of rivalry too.

So is there a competition between Graham and Hoyland to see which winger can end up as leading try-scorer? Not officially, according to that latter.

“Nothing that’s been communicated - but without a shadow of a doubt there’s a lot of competition there,” Hoyland added. “Darcy has been incredible, hasn’t he?

“He’s in such good form. And I feel that brings out the best in me, as I want to have the same amount of tries as him. That brings out the best in me in training and hopefully in games as well.

“We’ve not had any chats about a competition yet, but maybe that will have to come up at some point. But it would be unfair to start a competition now when Darcy’s three tries ahead of me - he’s got an unfair head start if we’re going to start any bets! I’m going to have to say to the others to stop passing to him all the time and give me more of the ball.”

In line with team policy, Hoyland declined to comment when asked about a possible return to the club of Duhan van der Merwe. The winger and loosehead prop Rory Sutherland have been strongly linked with a move back to Edinburgh from Worcester Warriors, who earlier this week were suspended from all competitions by the RFU after going into administration.