‘Former SA-based players in Scotland team no problem for Boks’
"These guys understand Afrikaans very well and they're still our proverbial blood, but it makes no difference."
Former SA-based player and now Scotland wing Duhan van der Merwe is one of several Afrikaans-understanding players in the Scotland team set to face the Springboks this weekend. Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images
The Springboks will face a unique challenge when they take on Scotland in their second match of their end-of-year UK tour in Edinburgh on Saturday, as they come up against a number of South Africa-born and bred players.
In the past weekend’s match 23 that defeated Australia former South African schools star and recent British and Irish Lions player Duhan van der Merwe started on the left wing, while former Bulls prop Pierre Schoeman packed down at loosehead prop.
Former Stormers prop Oli Kebble and utility back Kyle Steyn then rounded out the SA representation in the squad as they featured off the bench.
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Despite the unique challenges of facing players who have an intimate knowledge of the local game and will also understand the Boks’ calls in Afrikaans, utility forward Franco Mostert believes it makes no difference to them.
“From a personal perspective, these guys are merely players I compete against. Of course, you know these guys understand Afrikaans very well and they’re still our proverbial blood. But it still makes no difference, I don’t believe there’s some extra emotion involved,” said Mostert.
“All of them are excellent rugby players and made their marks in South Africa, which probably allowed them to come play overseas. We’ve all seen how they’ve done here. They’ll be keen to get an opportunity to play well and for us it’s just about having a lekker jol against them.
“But in the end I don’t believe it (them understanding the calls) will be an issue in any way, we’ll still make our calls and pre-calls. It won’t matter.”
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Looking at the Boks performance against Wales, Mostert admits that the team has a lot to improve on going into the Scotland match-up where they are expecting them to run the ball a lot more.
However, that just gives the Boks another opportunity to prove their mettle and bring their much vaunted defence to the fore again.
“I personally think we can sharpen up on everything, it wasn’t a perfect game (Welsh match) for us but we ground out a win,” claimed Mostert. “Now we just have to stick with our game plan going forward and make sure we don’t fall in a trap.
“In the match on the weekend they (Scotland) played some running rugby and I think with our defence we are suited for that and it will most likely take a team effort from us to stop them.”
