X marks the spot for new Bok hooker
SO far he has taken every step along the way but the precocious talent that is Malcolm Marx believes he has yet to walk the walk.
The new inclusion in coach Allister Coetzee’s Springbok group is right.
Having turned 22 last month, he is very much a greenhorn. But having represented just about every age-group team at provincial and national level he is indisputably in the throes of leaving his mark.
“I haven’t walked the walk but a lot of training and hard work has gone in,” Marx said before joining the Bok squad this week.
He has a decorated youth career but Marx also holds the view he has been the beneficiary of circumstance.
“I don’t think it’s just how I’ve played but also the team environment that I found myself in at the Lions. It’s been great. They give you freedom to play, obviously with some instructions,” he explained.
“I have been with the Lions since under13 but there is still a lot of hard work to go in.”
At 1.89m and 115kg, the former King Edward VII pupil has the forceful grunt of a Bismarck du Plessis, yet the off-themark thrust of a Schalk Brits.
With those attributes, it is little surprise that he played lock and flank before settling at hooker as late as his final school year.
“When I played lock it was not because I was a natural in that position,” he recalled.
I love tough battles with my opposite number. Playing freely appeals to me. Being able to jol
“I was a loose forward but I was tall enough to play lock. It was just to have me in the side.
“Loose forward and playing at two is the same sort of thing. I play the same game at two as I played at loose forward in the open play, stealing ball and all that sort of stuff.
“The only difference of course is where I scrum.”
His scrumming certainly packs a punch and it helps that he can put his left arm around former schoolmate Dylan Smith.
“I love being in the middle,” he said with no pun intended. “That’s in the thick of things. I love being in the tough battles with my opposite number.”
He equally relishes the wide open spaces. “Playing freely appeals to me. Being able to jol.”
Whenever he has been required to make a step up Marx has made the requisite adjustment. He had to abandon his studies while playing in the Varsity Cup before seamless transitions to the Currie Cup and Super Rugby. Now he faces the ultimate test. “I think it is going to be very quick,” he said about test rugby. “The physical battle will be a lot tougher as well.
“The margin for error will be smaller. If you start making errors the other team will pounce and create something out of it. Your set-piece has to be good, as well as your basic handling and all that stuff.”
Marx brings an urgency and restless energy that if channelled properly will soon be in high demand in Coetzee’s team. The team, however, has a reliable hooker and captain in Adriaan Strauss but the coach may be faced with a conundrum that haunted some of his predecessors. Marx has game time in his cross hairs. “Any guy that gets into the squad wants to play and wants to show that they played at international level,” he said. “I really hope I get the opportunity.”