SARrugby.com

I want to keep my comment as factual as possible... but I am up for correction...

I have followed Heinke van der Merwe since he was a schoolboy at Monument.

Every school he came up against used to fear him. I remember a cousin of mine fronting up against him in the front row, and said he is a freak of nature!

He is an INCREDIBLY strong person with explosive scrumamging and driving power.

He is definitly not the biggest person to have played loosehead for the Boks, but I am sure that he is pound for pound our best scrummager.

I remember reading an article on the Sharks website about 6 years ago..

BJ Botha said that he was the toughest bugger to scrum against and found it impossible to shove him backwards.

I dont want to sound like some of you farts that use the term "best, worst, biggest, strongest ...etc" too loosely....

But its difficult not to in this case...

Heinke van der Merwe is in my opinion... the strongest, most technically correct and fiercest loosehead that SA has produced since re-admission apart from Os.

If anyone wants to argue with me... and I am open to debate... please find me some conclusive evidence of him being bashed around at scrum time.

...that isnt to say that a scrum hasnt gone backwards as a scrum is made up of 8 people and not 1! But man for man... its very rare that he gets shoved back.

So with that in mind... I am glad that Meyer has given him a call. And so far, he hasnt let anyone down.

Chippo I have no issues with your assumption on Heinke's scrumming, he definitely is top notch. The only issue with him normally has to do with his looseplay, Beast outplays him in that department.

Ek..

I need to argue here...

Of late, Beast has gone MIA in the loose.

He used to offer a lot, but now he looks like a tired, lumbering buffalo.

Agree with Chip... I have always thought Heinke was unlucky. He is a total monster at scrum time.

I agree mostly Flash as I said Heinke is a diminutive crummaging monster like Piet Spiere was :)

But beast on form will always be better in the loose and yes of late beast has been overplayed....So maybe his last 2 or 3 months aren't really to go by to judge his prowess.

But Heinke must surely be in the reckoning for a start this weekend.

Ya not telling me Meyer didnt blunder then!!! Amazing it must have been a fluke.

Heineke is not an all round prop but is a reasobably good  srcummager.  He knows the NH scenario and was therefore a reasnable choice. Kitshoff can be allowed some time to grow up as a prop even if snapster thinks this is outrageous. Hahahahaha

So only really CJ at tighthead hs flopped. Who else ahs been a flop?

@Beeno..

"a reasobably good  srcummager. "

Thats like saying Brian Lara was a decent batsman!

COme on old fella... find me someone that has dominated Heinke...

Don't think you'll find someone too easily.

He is a total machine in the scrum! Just go and look on www.rugbydump.com for some heinke footage and find me someone that has got the better of him in an 80 minute game.

Whilst I agree re Beast Flash, and quite possibly these heart palpitations are worying him, I cant really think of Heinke as a monster scrummager. He was well know for scrumming upwards and used to get pinged often for that.. But he is pretty good. Got caught out in at least one scrum I recall but that too can happen to anybody.  His major issue is his work in the loose. Compare that to a fit Coenie and there is a noticeable difference.

Wonder if he will start? Bring on Guthro for 30 minutes even if ou Mike thinks he is only good for 15!!!

Heinke certainly tries to dominate and does at lower levels. Against stronger props I haven't seen it, more of the inward/upward stuff. You know, the coaches aren't totally stupid.....if there is a dominating scrummager to be had, they wont just ignore him.

My guess is Steenkamp is probably the better scrummager....and Meyer will pick him again. Heinke is a fine alternative though.

As for CJ.....from no test rugby....in two weeks he has been asked to play both sides of the scrum. Maybe that was a bridge too far.

What I recall Scotland doing was to scrum very low against CJ. CJ must not be considered as a tighthead.
Wonder if Malherbe is worth considering for the bench.  Als owonder how Jannie is.

Heinke is hardly the answer, but a far better option that the out of shape Steenkamp. He was a disgrace against Scotland as predicted he would be.

Heinke is not small, he weighs 120kg's these days!!