An unusual quirk of Rory Darge's international career is that come Saturday evening he will have played 16 times for his country with a quarter of those caps coming against France.

Eventful day, that. Spring of 2022. He was supposed to start at six but Hamish Watson went down with Covid so he wore seven instead. He won a turnover in the sixth minute, scored a try in the 29th, won another turnover before half-time and claimed two more after that.

He made the most tackles by a Scottish player and carried more times than any other player, including the carrying machine, Gregory Alldritt, and the greatest player in the world, Antoine Dupont.

Scotland lost heavily enough to a team that would soon be Grand Slam champions, but everybody was blown away by Darge. Apart from Darge. Later, he spoke to his flatmate and Glasgow team-mate, the prop Murphy Walker. The pair were in the same Scotland Under-18 and Under-20 squads.

Walker lauded his pal for the turnovers, the try, the sheer physicality he showed on both sides of the ball against the biggest pack on the continent, if not the world. He was thrilled Darge lived up to the moniker Walker had given him - Beast.

Walker said: "But he was going, 'I missed Dupont'. And I was going. 'What do you mean, you missed Dupont?' And he said, 'Dupont broke free and fended me and ran 50m and they scored off it. I missed him'. And that's Darge. His standards are incredibly high. He demands so much of himself."

Ask Walker if anything about the trajectory of Darge's career surprised him and he says no. He says that of all of the least surprising things he's ever seen, Darge becoming a key player for Scotland tops the lot. And he's not alone in that.

Fraser Brown, a phlegmatic operator who would look at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and say he's seen better, gushes about Darge's professionalism, his breakdown work, his footwork, his carrying power and his essential toughness.

"He's a good athlete, a really hard worker, doesn't say much, just goes about his business," the hooker says about his Glasgow team-mate. "I don't think I've ever seen him have a bad game. For him, a bad game is seven out of 10, which is a pretty good place to be.

"He's the best jackaler we've got. Speed and strength and bravery. So hard to shift when he's on the ball. He'd rather his ankles snapped than get shunted off a turnover. That's his mindset."

'His personality comes spilling out on pitch'

On Friday at Murrayfield, Darge did the captain's news conference, an unremarkable experience in one sense and a pretty remarkable thing in another.

In terms of juicy quotes or fighting talk ahead of France on Saturday, there were just crumbs from the top table: "Excited to be back at Murrayfield big challenge France coming here to show what they're really about."

All who know him will tell you that rousing speeches and killer one-liners are not Darge's bag. His personality tends to come spilling out on the pitch. As his coach, Gregor Townsend said on Thursday, he's a guy who leads by example.

The arresting thing was the fact that Darge was sitting there in the first place. He's 23 years old and co-captain of his country. Others who have sat in that chair on the eve of a championship game - Jamie Ritchie, Stuart Hogg, Greig Laidlaw, John Barclay, Kelly Brown, Ross Ford, Al Kellock and truckloads more - were gnarled pros compared to the callow Darge. And yet there he was. A kid by comparison.

Fifteen caps to his name. The princely total of four Six Nations games and three Six Nations starts to his credit and it's Darge, along with Finn Russell, who leads this team. Of the captains in this competition, only Dafydd Jenkins of Wales is younger. Darge has two years on Michele Lamaro, three years on Alldritt, a decade on Jamie George and 11 years on Peter O'Mahony.

So why him? Once you ask that question of those who have coached him and played alongside him you better set aside a bit of time because they've got lots to say.

He couldn't get a game with Edinburgh under Richard Cockerill, so he moved to Glasgow and practically took the eyes out of the heads of experienced campaigners at Scotstoun, such was his raw talent and steely focus.

Since 2019 he's dislocated his knee, did enough damage to his ankle that it cost him five months on the sidelines and, then, in December, lost another six weeks with another knee issue. Last week in Cardiff came a few days too early. This week, Townsend put him straight back in without hesitation.

He picked him ahead of Ritchie, his former captain, and Andy Christie, one of the form back-rows in the Premiership, despite the fact Darge hasn't played since the end of December.

He's had some experiences against France, not just his start but the games that followed, too. In a World Cup warm-up Test at Murrayfield in August he came off the bench and with the French threatening in the dying seconds he secured the pivotal turnover in his own 22 that protected Scotland's four-point win.

A week later, in St Etienne, against all the French A-listers he was terrific in a thriller that just went the way of the home team, 30-27. Darge scored a try, made 11 out of 11 tackles, won another turnover and held his own against a celebrated back-row.

In their planning meetings this week you can bet Fabien Galthie, Shaun Edwards and their collection of specialist coaches will have had Darge in their crosshairs. They have lost three of their last four games against Scotland in Edinburgh. Neutralising Darge's menace as a spoiler and carrier will be high up on their list of must-dos.

The boy himself. Cool and humble. "They've always been good games to be involved in. I've always loved playing them, always a big, physical challenge. But that's what rugby is about."

The truth of that will be evident at Murrayfield - and Darge will relish every second of it.