Marnus van der Merwe says the Springboks have a plan to prevent the All Blacks from disrupting their lineout in Wellington on Saturday.
The 28-year-old Scarlets hooker made his first appearance for the Boks off the bench in the non-cap match against the Barbarians in July, which was followed by a Test debut in the No 2 jersey against Georgia.
He was used as a sub in the win against the Wallabies in Cape Town and will perform the same role at the Cake Tin on Saturday as the Boks look to bounce back from a 24-17 defeat in Auckland.
The Boks lost four of their 18 lineouts at Eden Park and have a success rate of just 79% after three rounds of the Rugby Championship, with 34 wins from 43 throw-ins.
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Starting hooker Malcolm Marx has taken responsibility for his part in the set-piece woes, but Van der Merwe says it’s something the team as a whole has addressed this week.
“We looked at the video to see where we went wrong,” he told the media on Thursday. “They played their tricks very well with what they did [to disrupt the Bok lineout], and we have planned how we are going to stop it and how we are going to make them make more errors.”
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Van der Merwe said he was looking forward to facing the All Blacks for the first time in his career.
“It’s going to be lekker. I’m excited and a bit nervous, but you want to play against the best to become a better player, and they are No 1 [in the rankings] at the moment.”
Photo: Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images
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