Duhan van der Merwe goes from failed medical to Scotland's record try-scorer - and man who threw him lifeline

What singles him out from that group is that en route to reaching his half-century of caps van der Merwe has collected more international tries than any other men’s Scotland player.

He has 32 from 49 Tests and few would bet against him adding to the tally against the USA at Murrayfield this weekend in the opening game of the autumn series.

But it could all have been so different for the big South African who pitched up at Edinburgh eight years ago with high hopes and a dodgy hip. He had just spent a frustrating season in the Top 14 with Montpellier where he had struggled to settle. The language was a problem, he was far from home and the ongoing hip issue meant he was used sparingly.

Thank goodness for Richard Cockerill!

Salvation came in the shape of Richard Cockerill, the pugnacious former England hooker who had recently taken over as Edinburgh’s head coach. Cockerill went into bat for van der Merwe when others were not convinced.

“I failed the medicals initially when I came over to Edinburgh back in 2017,” the player explained. “Normally when you fail your medical: ‘bye-bye, back to where you came from’. They kind of chucked me a lifeline, Richard Cockerill backed me. I got surgery and I was back playing within five months.

“Within my first season, since coming back from injury, I started every game. Then going into my third year, I was voted as Pro14 Player of the Season just before I qualified for Scotland.”

The rest is history. He made his international debut against Georgia in October 2020 after fulfilling the three-year residency requirement and endeared himself to the Scotland support later that season by scoring the only try of the game in an 11-6 win over England, Scotland’s first at Twickenham for 38 years.

It was the beginning of a period of Scottish dominance in a fixture which had delivered more than its fair share of tartan heartache and van der Merwe has been at the heart of the upsurge in fortunes. “Any game against England is a special game,” he said on Friday.

One of the great Six Nations tries

He returned to Twickenham in 2023 and scored one of the greatest tries in Six Nations history as Scotland beat the Auld Enemy for the third year in a row. He got a double that day and went one better at Murrayfield the following year when he became the first Scottish player to score a hat-trick against England.

There was another van der Merwe try at Twickenham last season but this one finished in an agonising 16-15 defeat as Finn Russell’s last-minute conversion drifted wide. But seven tries in five appearances have marked the winger out as a Calcutta Cup specialist. Thank goodness for Richard Cockerill!

“I'm very grateful to Edinburgh and the SRU for giving me that opportunity back then and backing me because it was easier at the time to potentially say: ‘Look, you failed your medical. We don't need you’, reflected van der Merwe.

“What would I have done next is the question. Who's going to take me on? I'm a no-one. I'm 20, 21-years-old. I need hip surgery, I've had surgeries on both knees. I was thinking at the time, where to next? What am I going to do now?”

The doctor just shakes his head

Van der Merwe overcame his issues, confounding the medics in the process.

“Whenever I bump into the doctor at Spire [hospital], he always looks at me and just shakes his head and says: ‘I can't believe it when I see you run’. So, yeah, I've been lucky over the last couple of years, to be honest,” he added.

“Things didn't go as smooth as I probably wanted it to go at the start. If you said to me initially when I moved over to Scotland in 2017 that I'd be making my 50th tomorrow, I'd probably say, f*** off. There's no way.

“But it is obviously a very special moment for myself. It just shows if you put a bit of hard work in and you believe that you can do it that anything is possible. It's a very special moment for myself and for my family.”

If van der Merwe is in the mood you suspect it could be a long afternoon for the US who have arrived in Edinburgh with little in the way of form. They lost to both Canada and Japan to finish bottom of their pool in the recent Pacific Nations Cup, although they did get the better of Samoa in a play-off match to avoid last place.

Scotland beat them 42-7 in Washington DC 15 months ago and van der Merwe nabbed a try but Ewan Ashman outdid him that day, scoring a hat-trick. Saturday feels like a mismatch and it’s difficult to not let thoughts stray to the following week’s fixture against the All Blacks at Murrayfield.

Van der Merwe has urged caution on that front as Scotland go into battle with a team made up of home-based players only and give a debut to Liam McConnell at six, with hooker Harri Morris expected to also win his first cap off the bench.

“It's a massive challenge for us tomorrow,” said van der Merwe. “There are a lot of boys getting their first opportunities, a lot of debuts and a lot of boys that's going to want to play for a spot next week. Because none of us is guaranteed to play next week.”

Scotland team to face USA

Scotland v USA (Murrayfield, Saturday, 5:40pm)

Scotland: 15. Kyle Rowe (Glasgow Warriors); 14. Darcy Graham (Edinburgh), 13. Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors), 12. Stafford McDowall (Glasgow Warriors, capt), 11. Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh); 10. Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors), 9. Jamie Dobie (Glasgow Warriors, vice-capt); 1. Rory Sutherland (Glasgow Warriors), 2. Patrick Harrison (Edinburgh), 3. D'Arcy Rae (Edinburgh), 4. Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors), 5. Marshall Sykes (Edinburgh), 6. Liam McConnell (Edinburgh), 7. Dylan Richardson (Edinburgh), 8. Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors). Replacements: 16. Harri Morris (Edinburgh), 17. Nathan McBeth (Glasgow Warriors), 18. Murphy Walker (Glasgow Warriors), 19. Alex Samuel (Glasgow Warriors), 20. Max Williamson (Glasgow Warriors), 21. Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh), 22. George Horne (Glasgow Warriors), 23. Ross Thompson (Edinburgh).

USA: 15. Erich Storti; 14. Mitch Wilson, 13. Dominic Besag, 12. Tommaso Boni, 11. Toby Fricker; 10. Chris Hilsenbeck, 9. Ruben de Haas; 1. Ezekiel Lindenmuth, 2. Kaleb Geiger, 3. Pono Davis, 4. Marno Redelinghuys, 5. Jason Damm (capt), 6. Viliami Helu, 7. Cory Daniel, 8. Paddy Ryan. Replacements: 16. Sean McNulty, 17. Payton Telea-Ilalio, 18. Maliu Niuafe, 19. Tevita Naqali, 20. Makeen Alikhan, 21. Ethan McVeigh, 22. Tavite Lopeti, 23. Luke Carty.

Referee: Damian Schneider (Arg).