Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Simon Thomas

Meet Duhan van der Merwe, the 'most dangerous winger in the world' who has Wales in his sights after England wonder try

He has just scored a try for the ages and now Duhan van der Merwe is steaming his way towards Wales.

One can only wish his likely opposite number Josh Adams and the rest of the Welsh team the best up at Murrayfield because the big Scotland wing is a desperately hard man to stop.

That was vividly demonstrated by his two touchdowns in last Saturday’s thrilling 29-23 victory over England at Twickenham. His first has been dubbed as one of the greatest in Six Nations history - and understandably so given how he left five defenders clutching thin air on a wondrous weaving 55-metre run to the line, complete with a subtle shift of the ball from one hand to the other to facilitate the final fend on Alex Dombrandt.

READ MORE: Wales legend calls for team to be ripped up and eight changes made

One can only wonder how many times it has been watched around the world over the past three days, with some Scottish fans no doubt having it on permanent repeat. It was that special.

Yet, on any other day, his match-winning try six minutes from time would have been the one everyone was talking about as that was a top-class finish at the end of a magnificent move.

The bottom line is van der Merwe is a player on fire right now and the warning is there for Wales. Give him the chance to run at your peril.

So what’s his back story and what makes him tick?

He was born and raised in the city of George in South Africa’s Western Cape, soon making a name for himself as a young rugby player, representing the land of his birth at Schools and U20s level, appearing in the final of the 2014 Junior World Championship.

But, shortly after making his senior first-class debut for the Blue Bulls of Pretoria, he opted to head for France to join Montpellier in the summer of 2016, having only just turned 21.

However, he had difficulties adjusting to the culture and language and had little game-time amid a recurring hip injury. So, after just one season, he headed for Scotland, signing a two-year contract with Edinburgh.

Yet it was a new start that almost ended before it had begun, as Scottish rugby writer Bryn Palmer explains.

“When he first arrived, he failed his medical at Edinburgh, because of the hip problem,” he said. “He was really worried. Montpellier had let him go, Richard Cockerill had taken a bit of a punt on him. He had come over and he failed his medical.

“But Cockerill stuck by him and said he was going to give him a chance anyway. Obviously he was vindicated.”

Among those to take note was the then-newly appointed Scotland coach Gregor Townsend. Rugby journalist Dave Ferguson recalls: “As soon as van der Merwe landed on the scene, Gregor told me he thought he was a stunning player who would become a Scotland star. He felt he was a player we didn’t have.”

Townsend’s prediction was to prove spot on. The 6ft 4ins, 16st 7lbs winger is a key weapon in his team and a player with three Lions Tests to his name from the 2021 tour of South Africa.

Yet van der Merwe had to bide his time for international opportunity, qualifying through the three-year residency route, while he’s also had to work on his all-round game to become the player he is today.

Bryn Palmer elaborates: “He looked pretty clumsy when he first came on the scene. He obviously had that raw power and pace and he’s always had this ability to batter through people, but there was a bit of a question mark over his game intelligence.

“He has definitely improved and is actually looking like a proper rugby player now. The Lions tour did a lot for him and since then you can really see he has come on a bundle.

“He looks a lot more comfortable under the high ball. He has obviously put some work into his game there. He is a more confident player now and seems to have gone up another level.

“He has scored some pretty important tries for Scotland. He’s got the ability to produce it at the big moments as he showed again on Saturday.

“Being alongside intelligent rugby players like Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg and working with Gregor, he has obviously had a lot of exposure to more rounded rugby players which is helping his game. I don’t think Scotland have had a player like him before, no-one who plays in that position with that kind of power and pace.

“When you’ve got that size running at you with a head of steam, it’s not easy to stop. I don’t know if there is a more dangerous winger in the world at the moment.”

BBC Scotland’s rugby correspondent Tom English has been covering the sport for more than 25 years and can’t think of many solo scores to rank alongside van der Merwe’s long-range strike at Twickenham.

“The one that immediately springs to mind for just pure gob-smacking ‘Did that really happen?’ was Brian O’Driscoll for the Lions against Australia in Brisbane back in 2001,” he said.

“Certainly Saturday was like that. If anything, van der Merwe had more to do. He had five defenders to get rid of and he got rid of them all! You kept on thinking ‘Right, ok, someone’s going to get him, he’s going to crash to the ground any second’ but he just kept going.

“This is the 27th Five/Six Nations I have covered and, in terms of the Championship, I struggle to come up with one to compare favourably with it. You had the Scott Gibbs' score against England at Wembley in 1999 but that was a different kind of try.

“Van der Merwe was so deep when he got the ball and he had so much work to do. Five of them had a nibble at him. It’s incredible. It was an extraordinary thing really, just a piece of individual brilliance.”

Giving an insight into the reaction to the wonder try north of the border, English said: “It’s gone crazy. People who don’t particularly follow rugby have been watching and re-watching it and talking about it."

So what’s the message for Wales ahead of facing van der Merwe?

“Don’t kick the ball to him, just don’t do it!” replies English.

What will happen in Wales v Scotland? Cast your vote now


Any glimmers of hope for Wales as they prepare to take him on?

“He’s not great in the air and he can sometimes be a bit confused when you kick the ball in behind him. Defensively, he can get a little bit drawn out of position,” said English.

“He’s been criticised for staying on his wing too much and not looking for work. But he’s definitely improving in that, as we could see on the weekend.”

Sunday Times rugby correspondent Mark Palmer interviewed van der Merwe in early December following his return to Edinburgh from Worcester in the wake of the English club going into administration.

“There’s a quiet confidence with him,” said Palmer. “He’s not massively demonstrative off the park, but you can tell he knows he’s good and backs himself. He has added layers to his game since he came to Scotland. He used to be seen as a guy who would wait for the game to come to him, very much a touchline winger.

“How do you stop him? He’s certainly not the guy you want to be running full pelt at you.

“The five English guys have been criticised for not managing to get him down, but he’s probably the last man in world rugby you want running hard and straight at you at the moment.

“I think he can expect to be double-manned or even triple-manned at times by Wales and maybe a team effort can get him down where one normal-sized human can’t."

READ MORE

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.