Injury boost for Springboks and Munster as hooker returns to fitness

New Munster signing Marnus van der Merwe is ready to hit the ground running ahead of the start of the United Rugby Championship season after proving his fitness in an internal training game.

Hooker Van der Merwe, who won the third of his three Springbok caps in the record 43-10 win against New Zealand in Wellington last November, arrived in Ireland with a calf injury, which he picked up near the end of his second season in West Wales.

But he is now back to full fitness and ready to take his place in the front row in Munster’s final warm-up ahead of the URC season-opener against Glasgow Warriors at Thomond Park on Saturday week, kick-off 17;30pm.

Munster A will also be in action this weekend and face Connacht Eagles on the Thomond Park back pitch on Friday at 1pm.

Alex Nankivell was also back in the mix for selection after being involved in last week’s hit-out at Crescent College Comprehensive, having missed the pre-season game against La Rochelle with a knock.

However, fly-half JJ Hanrahan (concussion) and hooker Max Clein (neck) are both unavailable.

Van der Merwe’s recovery is not only good news for Munster, but also South Africa, given they were forced to turn to Deon Fourie as back-up to Malcolm Marx just shy of his 40th birthday in the recent series against New Zealand.

Fourie overtook Victor Matfield’s record and became the Springboks’ oldest international when he took to the field against the All Blacks in the second Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series in Cape Town.

The Stormers veteran proved he was more than a stop-gap solution, though, with performances that belied his advancing years and will make van der Merwe fight hard to regain the second hooker spot behind World Rugby Player of the Year Marx.

Fourie has not given up hope of playing at next year’s Rugby World Cup. He said: “It’s still a long way away and a lot of games to be played before then. If the body holds up and I can still perform at the top level, why not?”