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Duhan van der Merwe has given an update on last weekend's injury
By PA
Duhan van der Merwe has played down any concerns he might be a Scotland fitness doubt for their Rugby World Cup opener against South Africa on September 10 in Marseille. The Edinburgh wing went off with an ankle injury in the second half of last Saturday’s 30-27 Summer Nations Series defeat by France in Saint-Etienne.
However, van der Merwe is optimistic he will be available for selection for the team’s final pre-tournament warm-up match at home to Georgia a week on Saturday on August 26
“I twisted my ankle a bit, luckily it was nothing serious,” the 28-year-old explained after being confirmed in Scotland’s 33-man World Cup squad on Wednesday morning. “It’s fine, should be all good. We have had Monday and Tuesday off so we will assess it today, but hopefully it will be all good and I’m fine for Georgia.”
Asked if he was confident he would be ready to face South Africa, his birth country, in the opening World Cup pool match, van der Merwe said: “Yes, 100 per cent.”
Head coach Gregor Townsend also had good news to report on the fitness of first-choice scrum-half Ben White. The 25-year-old has been nursing an ankle injury that forced him off in the first half of the home game against France on August 12, but he has been included in the final World Cup squad and could be involved against Georgia later this month.
“Ben is good,” said Townsend. “He had a meeting with the specialist on Monday and that was positive. He ran yesterday [Tuesday], which was the first time he had ran in 10 days, so we will see over the next two or three days if he will be available for next week’s game. That is the target.
“It would be nice to have him available for next week but if he doesn’t come right for that, we know he will be available for South Africa.”
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Honestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
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