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Scottish Rugby set for huge Duhan van der Merwe shaped boost
By Neil Fissler
Duhan van der Merwe is poised to give Scottish Rugby another boost by turning down a move to France when his contract runs out at the end of the season.
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Star winger van der Merwe, 29, one of the lethal finishers in the world, is Scotland’s all-time leading try scorer with 30 in 44 games, one more than Darcy Graham has been linked with a move to Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle.
The 6’4” powerhouse was also linked with a return to South Africa to join the Stormers, which was subsequently denied is set to turn down a move to the Atlantic coast to remain in the Scottish capital.
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RugbyPass sources in France have told us that Top 14 recruitment bosses believe that even though he has yet to sign a new contract, only a dramatic collapse would prevent it from happening.
The former South Africa under-20 international and younger brother of former Springbok hooker Akker van der Merwe qualified for Scotland on residency grounds and is closing in on 100 appearances for Edinburgh.
He started his career with the Blue Bulls before moving to Montpellier and arriving in Edinburgh in 2017. He returned in 2022 after a spell in the Premiership with Worcester Warriors.
Edinburgh boss Sean Everitt told RugbyPass after we broke the news of Van der Merwe’s talks with La Rochelle that he was desperate for him to agree a new contract and stay with the United Rugby Championship outfit.
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“I was joking with him today because we obviously read the same article. We want to keep Duhan in Scotland if we can. He’s got a business here in Scotland.
“We desperately do want to keep him here, so we’ll do the best we can. We’re in the process of contracting for season 2025-2026 at the moment. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it,” he said.
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I'm starting to believe with the incredible depth of SA rugby SARU should discuss the possibility of not just having Saffers playing for foreign club teams, they should suggest that to bring up the game internationally instead of the Duhans having to spend three years qualifying for the international team there could also be a 'loan' type of agreement where they could play automatically for the country they were in for a specific number of years while the home players had time to improve (or something like that) but the game itself would also benefit from better matches. Just an idea, Rassie...