Marcel van der Merwe (Gallo Photographs)
- Bulls mentor Jake White has leapt to the defence once more of his Springbok prop Marcel van der Merwe, who’s nonetheless struggling to seek out his mojo.
- The 30-year-old tighthead, a alternative towards the Lions on Wednesday, turned in a greater efficiency with out suggesting he is over his troubles but.
- White additionally factors out that inconsistent referee interpretations are additionally contributing to his struggles.
Amid the continued wave of positivity within the Bulls camp, Jake White has as soon as once more needed to defend the misfiring Marcel van der Merwe.
One of many Bulls director of rugby’s extra outstanding signings, the seven-cap Springbok tighthead has struggled to adapt to life again at Loftus as his often vaunted scrumming capacity has confirmed underwhelming thus far.
The 30-year-old got here on as a second-half alternative throughout Wednesday’s 22-15 Currie Cup win over the Lions and whereas he regarded a bit extra composed, his influence was nonetheless restricted.
He was notably dominated at one scrum by his direct opponent, Sti Sithole.
White has admittedly been in a troublesome place with regards to Van der Merwe.
Whereas he needed to grant the previous Toulon stalwart prolonged game-time to counter his detached kind, the necessity for constant general outcomes has made it a balancing act.
“This isn’t a few situation about extra game-time,” stated White.
“It has been a very long time since Marcel’s performed back-to-back matches. It is going to take time.”
The Bulls mentor additionally identified once more that the No 3 is, no less than for the second, presumably nonetheless drawing the quick straw with regards to the various referee interpretations at scrum time.
“The scrum calls on either side was a speaking level and it has been so in different video games too,” stated White.
“There have been calls that might’ve gone the opposite method. You virtually get the sensation – and that is throughout the board – that one participant does a selected factor all through that does not get blown and when one other does the identical factor, he is penalised.
“It is going to take time to get used to this. I’ve despatched plenty of clips to the referees this season and we invariably get suggestions from them that some calls would possibly’ve been totally different.”
With such issues out of White’s management, his process is simply to maintain plugging away and backing Van der Merwe.
“He will emerge and show his worth, I am assured of that.
“We have invested plenty of time in him these previous few weeks. A number of weeks again, some stated Marcel could not scrum. On this sport, we received a number of late ones with him within the entrance row. We misplaced two too, however the identical goes for (the Lions’ veteran former Bok prop) Jannie du Plessis.
“He is very skilled and probably the greatest scummers we have had the previous decade, but it surely took time for him to adapt. Marcel’s on the identical highway and he is scrumming with new hookers virtually each sport besides.”
