Duhan van der Merwe 'in excellent nick' ahead of huge Scotland Six Nations decision

Hip and calf issues have hampered van der Merwe this season and he has missed a number of matches but he returned to the Edinburgh side for the game against the Bulls a week past Friday and retained his place against Leinster on Saturday.

The capital team lost both games narrowly but van der Merwe scored a try in each, a timely reminder of his potency ahead of Scotland’s Six Nations opener against Italy away this weekend.

The winger found himself dropped from the national team for the first time in the autumn when he wasn’t selected in the match-day 23 to play New Zealand. He was on the bench the following week against Argentina and returned to the starting line-up for the final match of the campaign against Tonga. Kyle Steyn was preferred to him in the big matches and the Glasgow Warriors wing is a clear favourite to start in Rome this Saturday.

But van der Merwe has a try-scoring record beyond compare in the Six Nations and Schoeman believes he is back to his optimum physical condition.

“He's in excellent nick,” said the Edinburgh prop. “The way he trains, he gyms with the forwards, and he runs ahead of all the backline players. I think there's only a few that can catch him. As I say, he still runs the 100 [metres] in highland grass, wet grass, bare feet, under 10 seconds.

“I think he's the only guy in the campaign that has a six-pack on his back as well! He's really physically ready for the challenge.”

While Schoeman’s comments were partly tongue-in-check, there is no disguising van der Merwe’s Six Nations stats. His strike-rate in the championship is outstanding, particularly against England. He has scored 16 tries in 24 Six Nations matches for Scotland, with seven of them coming in five Calcutta Cup matches.

‘He’ll do something’

“I think he's a guy that, if you give him the ball, he'll do something,” added Schoeman. “You can see his energy speaks for itself. He always picks himself up, being positive and strong.”

Schoeman was impressed with the quality of the training sessions when the squad gathered at Oriam last week but stressed the importance of focusing solely on the Italy game rather than looking too far ahead in the tournament.

“I think there's an expectation of winning, but it's not daft, like, ‘let's tell friends, fans and families, we're going to win the Six Nations’,” said the loosehead who is embarking on his fifth championship campaign.

“It's about winning that first game, Italy. That's our first hurdle. So all our focus, when we come into camp, is about that first game. It’s about locking in and winning in Rome, that's our main job. Then we go for the next week, and then the next. Not empty words. We believe the only currency in rugby is actions.”

Meanwhile, Glasgow Warriors forwards Euan Ferrie and Seb Stephen have been called into the Scotland A squad for Friday night’s match against an Italy XV in Rieti. They are joined by Edinburgh prop D’arcy Rae who drops down from the main squad. James Whitcombe has had to withdraw from the A game due to injury while another Edinburgh prop, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, has left the A squad to link up with the Scotland Under-20s who take on their Italian counterparts in Treviso on Friday.