IT had been 16 months since Duhan van der Merwe last played for Edinburgh, and several weeks since he had played at all, but the winger slotted in against Benetton on Saturday night as if he had never been away.
If the 27-year-old was nervous on his second debut, it did not show. If he was a little rusty . . . Well, there was no sign of that either as he ran in two of his team’s nine tries in their 53-8 win over the Italians.
Granted, most of his team-mates were those he had left behind when he joined Worcester in the summer of 2021. But there were a couple of unfamiliar factors, all the same, that a less robust player might have taken more time to come to terms with.
For one thing, Van der Merwe’s first, four-year spell with Edinburgh was under Richard Cockerill, a very different personality, with a radically different playing style, from current head coach Mike Blair. But then Blair’s attacking philosophy, and his preference for a far less rigid game plan, are both ideally suited to the new recruit’s strengths.
Then there is the DAM Health Stadium a far smaller, more intimate ground than BT Murrayfield, where Edinburgh played their home games until the start of last season. One rationale behind the move was that a crowd of around 5,000 generates far more atmosphere in a 7,800-seat venue than in a 67,000-capacity stadium. Van der Merwe certainly appreciated that difference, although he did admit that the artificial turf was not his favourite surface.
“This place was absolutely bouncing,” he said after the match, which saw Edinburgh end a run of three defeats in emphatic fashion. “On my second debut I’ll take that any time.
“It’s completely different [to Murrayfield]. I probably prefer the grass pitch, but in here it feels like 15, 20,000 people. It’s amazing. I loved it.
“The surface is okay. Some days I like it and some days I don’t. It feels quite quick but it’s not so good on the knees.
“I haven’t played for a while. I had only played one game since the Summer Tests, so for me it is about getting that match fitness, getting back up to speed and trying to perform before the bigger tests.”
While the immediate impetus for Van der Merwe’s return to the capital was provided by Worcester’s going into liquidation and his contract there becoming void, he is well aware that there are certain advantages to being a home-based player.
If he had stayed in the south, for example, his club would not have been required to release him for the match against Australia at the end of the month, as it falls outside the recognised Test window.
“That’s a boost,” he added. “That was one of the things that was at the back of my head. If I was still at Worcester I would have missed out on playing against Australia, which was a bit s***.
“We [he and Scotland coach Gregor Townsend] had a couple of conversations about me potentially coming back. I’m back now, so could potentially be playing against Australia if selected.”
Given Van der Merwe’s lack of game time, Townsend might prefer him to have another run out against Zebre on Saturday before facing the Wallabies at the end of the month. In general, though, both Edinburgh and Glasgow will be without some of their biggest names for this weekend’s games as national duty comes first, as Blair acknowledged.
“We’ll find out soon exactly who will be away [with Scotland],” he said. “We always knew this was going to be the case. We’ve got 10 managed players whose game time we’ve got to plan; the plan was for a number of them not to be involved next week anyway.
“I’ve been trying to drip-feed guys into the squad – on merit, but also to give them game time going into these next couple of fixtures.
“I spoke to the guys about how this period, these four/five games, will probably be the biggest of the season for the club. This will show the strength in depth, the unity, the understanding in what we are trying to do. When the guys come back from November I want us to be in a better position than we are now.”
