AMBITION is nothing new in rugby. For players, moving to bigger clubs, in better leagues, has always been part of the game. These days however, that may mean less of jumping from town to city, more country to country in order to find the right fit. The case of Duhan van der Merwe is a case in point.
Van der Merwe, now 23, left South Africa in 2016 to broaden his horizons and further his career when he signed for Montpellier. A year on, he left France with the same motives, this time headed for Edinburgh. Happily he found a club that wanted him and, more importantly, a coach who wanted to play him.
“I was in South Africa and decided I wanted to go overseas. I got the option to go to Montpellier when Jake White was coach,” van der Merwe recalled. “Basically, Jake approached me through my agent. I arrived and there was maybe 15 other South Africans which made life a lot easier, [but] I didn’t give much attention to the French language.
“Things didn’t go as expected as I was up against the best in the world. That made it quite tough for me as a youngster coming over and wanting to play professional rugby. I was just a junior competing against internationals. They had just signed Nemani Nadolo and Joe Tomane. They had Timoci Nagusa, Benjamin Fall. I was probably sixth in line.
“I got my first cap [game] just before New Year which I enjoyed a lot as I got a try as well. That was against Pau away. We lost.
“The season went on and in January /February I got approached by Edinburgh and signed. It was still Jake White [as coach at Montpellier] when I finished that season and then it was announced Vern Cotter was taking over.”
Pastures new certainly meant a new beginning for Van der Merwe, particularly under Richard Cockerill. The Bok flyer isn’t the first to sing the praises of the one-time Leicester coach. However, it is evident that Cockerill’s skill-set, in man-management, sports psychology and positive thinking matches anything he might know about scrummaging or tactics. Van der Merwe’s insight into life off the pitch only enhances what might be described as the Cockers Effect.
“When I arrived in Edinburgh I was focused on getting more game time. I am not saying it was much easier here but I got the opportunity to do that. It was a two-year deal at a professional club.
“With Cockers coming in, I managed to get more game time. I am still young and needed more game time. If I had stayed at Montpellier it would have been the same for me.
“Getting the opportunity from Cockers and him backing me up gave me a lot of confidence. As the season went on I felt I had a few decent performances and that gave me a massive boost. To be named a few times in the starting line-up and us winning a few of our games last year and going up against internationals on the wings was a nice confidence booster for me.”
It has worked out for the former Bulls winger, who next week, as fate would have it, gets to lock horns with Montpellier as Edinburgh begin their charge on the Heineken Champions Cup. It won’t be easy, something not lost on Van der Merwe. And Edinburgh would make it partic-ularly difficult for themselves if they allow Montpellier to play as freely as the last European opposition they faced, when Benetton ran in five tries at Murrayfield last week.
“That wasn’t our best performance,” says Van der Merwe, who enjoyed a better game on Friday when Edinburgh beat the Cheetahs 37-21. “We weren’t very happy. It’s like a mind-switch which we hadn’t turned on as we’d want to. It’s not that we can’t make tackles, and we have a very good system, but we just switched off and that caused a team like Benetton to score tries. We’ve had a really good defence for the past year, one of the best out there, so I’m not too worried about teams like Montpellier. I’m positive about our system.”
It will have to be good against an all-star Montpellier back division, and one man in particular, the 6ft 4in, 130kg Fijian winger, Nadolo.
“Yes, he is a good guy. A massive, massive guy. He has a few kgs on me, maybe a few metres; very skilful. He will definitely be a threat. We will work hard this week on how to stop him.”
And how do you do that?
“We will have to put double shots on him. Him coming at you is a bit scary so we have to focus on how to stop him and go low on him. It is the only way. He’s a left-wing so I probably won’t go up against him, although I’d have liked the challenge.”
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