Despite a brace of tries of his own, Edinburgh halfback Nic Groom this past weekend praised his team-mate Duhan van der Merwe and said he was “good enough” for test rugby.

The young winger had a massive run down the touchline, carrying the ball in one hand and beating two defenders before looping it inside to Groom for the halfback’s second try in Edinburgh’s PRO14 win over rivals Glasgow Warriors on Saturday night.

Van der Merwe is the brother of Springbok hooker Akker, who plays for Sale Sharks in the English Premiership division, and has qualified by residency for Scotland. If Groom has anything to do with it, he believes Van der Merwe will make an easy transition to test rugby.

“I owe Duhan a lot of beers. He put me over once or twice. I’ve been waiting, he is an incredible player with ball in hand and my philosophy is that if I just remain close to him, I’ll be in the right place,” he laughed after the game.

Asked if he thought Van der Merwe was international quality, it wasn’t even a flash before Groom affirmed this.

“I think so, I don’t think many people will argue with that. His form has proved that and think he has improved immensely over the season. He has added a lot to his game.”

Groom also had praise for his halfback partner, former Lions utility back Jaco van der Walt, who claimed the man of the match award at flyhalf with 15 points on the night.

“Jaco looked really good, he has really stepped up running the attack. We will keep on working as 9s and 10s to keep the team on the front foot. Obviously now you get a lot more lineouts because of the penalties and kicking for touch,” Groom concluded.

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