If he stayed in SA, would Duhan van der Merwe have made the Bok squad?

Many will say that the dynamic Cheslin Kolbe is the world’s leading winger. Others, mainly in New Zealand, would say Will Jordan is the best in the business, but could it be that Scotland’s SA-born Duhan van der Merwe is the number one?

There is no doubt Van der Merwe is an outstanding rugby player, a real try-machine, but the big question on everyone’s lips is, would the 28-year-old have become a Springbok, maybe a World Cup winner, had he stayed in South Africa and not left for Europe in 2016?

Of course, we’ll never know, but one’s got to wonder what Bok boss Rassie Erasmus thinks of Van der Merwe and his accomplishments for his adopted country and what the player himself feels about the fact he plays for Scotland and not potentially the Boks.

That he is world class is not in dispute. And he’s also not the first SA born player to leave these shores to look for greener (or is that international?) pastures elsewhere.

Lost to Boks

Clyde Rathbone left his home country to play for the Wallabies, Brian Liebenberg played for France, and CJ Stander became an Irish legend. There are many others, too, who gave up on their Bok dream — maybe because they weren’t picked quickly enough or felt they didn’t stand a chance in South Africa — to take up an opportunity in other countries, many in Scotland and France especially.

Had these men shown more patience back in SA would they eventually have got the call-up?

Would Van der Merwe have impressed Erasmus enough to play for the Boks?

And that is taking nothing away from the wingers who’ve done the business for the Boks in the last few years, all of whom are excellent in their own right and can also be classified as world-class.

Try-machine

Van der Merwe, who scored another hat-trick against England last weekend and was the talk of the town (as he has been on a number of occasions since making his Scotland debut) is now perhaps South Africa’s greatest rugby export, though many observers would throw a few other names into the hat.

Van der Merwe has scored 26 tries in 37 Tests for Scotland and is now just one try short of the Scotland record 27 Test tries, held by Stuart Hogg.

It is a given he will break the record and stand alone as Scotland’s most prolific try-scorer. The question is, how many will he end up on?

While it is every player’s choice where they want to play and who they want to represent, it is unfortunate Van der Merwe got lost to the Boks.

Yes, there are great wingers available to the South African national team, but it would have been nice having the option of picking the powerful “Scottish man” as well.