Jake White and his high flying Bulls team have been hailed as masterminds in recruiting both experienced campaigners and young stars destined for greatness. Marcel van der Merwe was one of the players that was heralded as a masterstroke but he struggled from day one and never looked like the prop we expected. He is mammoth of a man who has all attributes that a prop in the modern game is expected to have but yet he struggled to make an impact. Looking deeper at the issues of South African props is something that we often gloss over because we have the luxury of producing so much young talent year in and year out.
Our young props are often so big and strong that they are able to blast onto the scene looking like the real deal without having to pass the milestones of earning the right to play with the big boys. Our props don’t learn the skills needed to beat out other props who have equal or more strength come scrum time. It takes a real understanding of one’s body to counter what the other prop is offering at scrum time. It isn’t a case of pushing the hardest or winning the hit but how to apply pressure at the right point at the time whilst negating what he is throwing your way. This is a learnt skill that doesn’t happen jumping from the youth leagues into senior rugby overnight. Earning your stripes against older experienced guys on the dusty outer fields is vital in honing the skills necessary to take the next step up. When one looks at other sports we talk about clocking in thousands of hours to master the skills so why should scrumming be any different. We should be tracking the ‘reps’ of youngsters to scrum against numerous players of various skillsets to give them the best chance to succeed.
The other bugbear of mine when it comes to pushing young props too much to young is the emphasis we place on the skillset in the loose rather than the set piece. We love the highlight package moments of young props making huge tackles or running around wingers but this doesn’t pay the bills. They are needed at scrum time, lifting lineout jumpers and hitting rucks not sidestepping on the touchline. These skills are a bonus and when looking at the Tendai Mtawarira, Taniela Tupou and even Os du Randt they could make plays that most players couldn’t even dream of but the core underlying strength of theirs was being pillars in the scrum. We should be grateful for these freaks of nature when they come along but it should be viewed as a bonus. Let’s look at two examples in South Africa – Jan Hendrik Wessels and Ntuthuko Mchunu who are great young talents who have the tools to be great players of the future but need time to get better at scrumming. I sincerely hope that time is taken for these players to learn the skills needed to be consistent at the next level. Bouncing around props from loose head to tighthead and visa versa is also not the solution as we don’t move fly halves to wing and expect them to get better every week. It takes hours in the saddle to learn the skills needed and to be humbled by experienced operators is not the end of the world.
We should be heralding guys who have learnt the ability of winning penalties not being the biggest and strongest player in the battle. No better example for me is Lourens Adriaanse who looks like a social player with none of the physical attributes Marcel van der Merwe possesses. Yet he is very hard to put away at because he understands his strengths and how to manipulate the opposition. I am looking forward to him re-joining the Sharks to pass on his knowledge to younger props in the system. Let’s hope we learn the lesson of Marcel van der Merwe and how to make sure that we can get the very best out of our young talent rather than chop and change when someone isn’t able to dominate in a few short years.
Leave a Reply