Duhan van der Merwe still terrorised Wales in one of his quiet games
After a two try, man of the match performance against England in round one of the Guinness Six Nations, winger Duhan van der Merwe had to see his back three teammates Kyle Steyn and Blair Kinghorn dive over the whitewash against Wales at Murrayfield on Saturday.
It was one of the 106kg winger’s quieter games in that he did not score, but that does not mean he was not a handful for the Welsh defence. On a number of occasions he was seen blazing down his left wing, swatting away tacklers, but could not quite get a try.
England might have experienced van der Merwe at his best, but Wales will attest that he is pretty unstoppable in his quiet games as well.
Take a look at his performance:
While the South African born back was man of the match in the Calcutta Cup Test, Finn Russell picked up the accolade against Wales, as Scotland beat a Warren Galtand-led Wales outfit for the first time. The challenges only get harder for Scotland though, as they face reigning champions France in Paris in round three.
Speaking of Russell’s performance after the match, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: “The threats that Finn has around him set up opportunities. He made very good decisions on what opportunities to take.
“In November, he played really well against New Zealand and Argentina. Against England he built into the game, and today was something similar.
“I thought he was really good defensively today. He’s a really competitive player and that comes out in different ways. It often comes out in his defence, his contact clears – things that won’t get spotted.
“The things that will get spotted are his offloads and kicks which were excellent, but when he’s at that level of focus and competitiveness, he’ll deliver a very good performance like he did today.”
