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Springbok hooker Akker van der Merwe survived a match halting hail storm at Exeter and is now determined to stop a Northampton storm from knocking Sale’s bid for a top-four Premiership place off course.
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Van der Merwe was one of the first Sale players to race off the Sandy Park pitch last weekend as hail forced the referee to halt the Heineken Champions Cup loss to Exeter for a short period in the second half. That second successive European loss to Exeter seriously damaged Sale’s hopes in the competition which means attention now turns to the Premiership and the arrival of top of the table Northampton, who have just endured two hammerings by Leinster in Europe, conceding a debilitating 93 points in those losses.
However, Northampton are set to recall likes of Cobus Reinach, Courtney Lawes, David Ribbans, Mike Haywood, Teimana Harrison, Rory Hutchinson, Tom Collins and George Furbank to try and maintain their Premiership position. As a result, van der Merwe is expecting to face a Northampton backlash that will severely test Sale’s own credentials as potential top four finishers.
Van der Merwe told RugbyPass: “We scored a try at Exeter and then Jono (Ross, Sale captain) came running back and just smiled at me as the hail started.
“I had never played in hail before and when the ref said “time off” I was probably the first one into the dressing room. It is a lot different from Durban and I don’t think I have ever been to a place (Manchester) where it rains so much!
“Now we are facing Northampton and after the Leinster results, their boys will be hungrier and up for it and it will be a tough battle. I am here to test myself against the best and I am looking forward to the battle on Saturday – there is definitely going to be one.
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“We haven’t delivered that 80 mins performance yet and this is a really important time of the season. The weather makes it a lot more difficult to move the ball wide and so the forwards have to be on their game all the time. Set piece dominance is what we look to achieve and back in Super Rugby while the teams aren’t weaker, you expect to get your four points against the bottom teams but here the bottom side can beat the top one. If you are not on it every week you will lose. Over the next three weeks, we must finish the year well.”
Van der Merwe won the last of his three test caps against England last year in Bloemfontein in the same Springbok team as Faf de Klerk, now his teammate at Sale. De Klerk was in the international wilderness when he arrived at Sale but his performances for the Premiership club earned him a recall which led to a World Cup winner’s medal in Japan. Van der Merwe believes playing in England will make him a more complete player and hopes to relaunch his own test career.
Terribly sad news coming out of France. Thoughts and prayers are with his family https://t.co/GG8zjLY9ZG
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 19, 2019
The hooker scored two tries in the first of those two Heineken Champions Cup defeats by Exeter to showcase his attacking skills, but it is the piano shifting rather than the piano playing that is the key part of a hooker’s game to ensure quality ball from scrum and line out.
“Playing here is going to challenge me in a way I haven’t been challenged before,” he added. “It will make me a better player and the dream is still to play for the Springboks.
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“It is nice to run with the ball but my primary work is in the tight and I need to get all of those things right before I start thinking about open play.”
In the New Year van der Merwe will be throwing lineout ball to World Cup-winning Springbok lock Lood de Jager who will arrive at Sale after recovering from a serious shoulder injury suffered in the final against England in Yokohama. There is already a strong Springbok contingent at the club headed by de Klerk along with Rob Du Preez and his brothers Jean-Luc and Dan plus prop Coenie Oosthuizen who were all part of the Sharks Super Rugby squad with van der Merwe last season
Having swapped the sun of Durban for Manchester’s inclement weather, fifth placed Sale need van der Merwe and his South African mates to help make this a winning Happy Christmas – despite the weather.
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments