Duhan’s fit and firing… Tandy allays fears that winger van der Merwe was another potential injury worry for Scotland ahead of Six Nations opener
Scotland finally received some good news on the injury front when it was revealed that Duhan Van Der Merwe will be fit and available for the Six Nations opener with Italy on Saturday.
The winger sat out training with Gregor Townsend’s squad early last week after missing Edinburgh’s Challenge Cup match against Black Lion with an ankle injury sustained against Vannes the previous weekend.
That led to fears the nation’s all-time leading try scorer could be set to join a casualty list including captain Sione Tuipulotu, Scott Cummings, Dylan Richardson and Josh Bayliss, who have all been ruled out of this year’s tournament.
However, defence coach Steve Tandy confirmed that the South-Africa born star will be ready to take his place in Townsend’s team against the Azzurri at Murrayfield after the full squad took part in training this week.
Asked how Van der Merwe was progressing, Tandy said: ‘Duhan’s been in training today, he’s been good, he’s done everything today.’
Back-rower Luke Crosbie and second-row duo Grant Gilchrist and Jonny Gray have also had injury issues in recent weeks, but Tandy played down any concerns the Scots may be about to be hit with further withdrawals.
Duhan van der Merwe’s return to training this week was a boost to Scotland
Scotland assistant coach Steve Tandy said there had been no new injury worries
‘No, the boys trained today, everyone’s been in and has been training, so that’s great for us after losing a few. But that’s rugby, every team has it.
‘We’ve lost a couple of big ones, but it is what it is, we’ve just got to focus on the boys that are coming in. It’s an amazing opportunity to represent Scotland, whoever it may be.’
Confident that Scotland have enough experience in their ranks to deal with the loss of Tuipulotu and lock Cummings, Tandy added: ‘With Sione and Scott and some of the bigger players who are still here, the leadership has been huge, but I think a lot of their leadership has rubbed off on others as well.
‘The group has been together for a fair period of time now, so even though there’s one leader (Tuipulotu), it’s also shared. Stafford McDowall is captain in Glasgow, so there are lots of shared experiences and learnings right throughout the group.
‘Ultimately it is a void, but we have to fill it, and what we find is when someone does have an unfortunate injury, it’s surprising the people that do step up.’
