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'Someone says you need surgery, you're thinking 3 or 4 months’
By Bryn Palmer
Duhan van der Merwe confessed to still being in shock after an emotional six-week rollercoaster ended in his selection for a second British and Irish Lions tour.
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The giant wing, Scotland’s record try-scorer with 32 in 49 Tests, was left to fret over whether he would still be considered for the trip to Australia after suffering an ankle injury in Edinburgh’s URC win over the Dragons on 28 March.
Initially he wasn’t too worried. “I came in on the Monday and said, ‘why are we scanning me? I don’t need a scan’. I thought I’d just twisted my ankle a bit or something. Then we went for the scan and I’m still like, making a joke, ‘we’re wasting money! I don’t need a scan!’”
Once the results came though, Van der Merwe took a call from his physio, who informed him the issue was “a wee bit more serious than we thought”.
Both Edinburgh and the player were reluctant to divulge details about the nature of the injury, but when the 29-year-old was told he needed an operation, it seemed his worst fears might be realised.
“I was in tears,” he said. “I guess I didn’t know what was next for me. You go into these kind of things and you think the worst. When someone says to you, ‘you need to get surgery’, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, it’s going to be three or four months’.”
Edinburgh issued an update on 1 April saying Van der Merwe was “expected to return during May” but he was unable to make any on-field statements before Farrell finalised his squad and was in the dark as to whether the Lions were monitoring his progress.
“I was thinking ‘are you guys updating them, like how well I’m doing and how far ahead of schedule I actually am?’ Coming into the announcement, it was playing on my mind that I’ve not played, I’ve got a wee niggle going on. It was pretty tough. You don’t know anything. You just have to switch on the telly and hopefully see your name being announced. I’m still shocked, to be honest. But I do take a lot of confidence from that.”
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Van der Merwe will not be involved in Edinburgh’s URC fixture against Connacht on Saturday and will also miss their final game of the regular season, at home to Ulster, next Friday, 16 May.
He had initially penciled in the European Challenge Cup final on 23 May as a target for his return, but after Edinburgh’s semi-final loss to Bath, is relying on his team-mates to win their final two games to qualify for the play-offs, if he is to feature again this term.
They currently lie 10th, two points off eighth place, but there are at least half-a-dozen clubs battling for probably just two spots in a fiercely congested table.
Even if Edinburgh miss out on the top eight for a third straight season, however, Van der Merwe is not fazed about the prospect of joining up with the Lions with no rugby under his belt for more than two months.
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He recalls going into the opening game of the 2023 Six Nations after a similar spell on the sidelines and scoring one of the greatest tries in the Championship’s history – a stepping, swerving, 60-metre solo effort – against England at Twickenham.
“Funnily enough, when I played against England away and scored that ‘lucky try’, as I call it, looking back I hadn’t played for five weeks before that. For me, I feel I’ve done enough over the last eight years to go into a game with confidence. I don’t need to potentially play to go into the next game with confidence.
“I’m not too far away. I’m really positive. Each day I come out to run, I just feel better and better. It gives me four or five weeks to get in unbelievable shape because I’m not really out on the pitch. Other boys will be playing week in and week out.
“When you get towards the end of the season, it’s tough to constantly work on something you want to work on. I’ve got a real opportunity to really look after my body, work on the niggles I’ve got and just work on my speed. For me, that’s very exciting. I’m really looking forward to the next couple of weeks.”
Van der Merwe went on the last Lions tour to South Africa after his debut season in Test rugby yielded eight tries in his first 10 Scotland Tests, including winning scores against England at Twickenham and France in Paris.
He marked his first outing in the famous red shirt with a try in a pre-tour match against Japan at Murrayfield and four more tries in the warm-up games – including a hat-trick against Sharks – saw him chosen to start all three Tests against the Springboks.
Ireland’s James Lowe, in particular, will provide serious competition for the Lions No.11 shirt this time when the serious business against the Wallabies comes around. But with Scotland fly-half Finn Russell, centres Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones and full-back Blair Kinghorn also included in the squad, Van der Merwe will be surrounded by players familiar with his game and how to harness his destructive blend of power and pace.
“I’ve been playing with them for the last couple of years and they know what to get out of me and I kind of know what to expect from them,” he added. “So that’s brilliant having them on tour. But at the same time, you gel with all the other lads immediately and you start working off each other’s strengths. I’ve played with Elliot Daly on the previous tour and Fin Smith was my fly-half at Worcester, so that’s exciting linking up with him again.
“It’s not going to be easy, you know, getting into that Test squad. That’s the exciting part; you’ve potentially got a couple of games before the Tests to really put your hand up. So I look at that as a real opportunity. Four years ago, we didn’t win the series. So hopefully this time around we go out there and win the series.”
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