VAN DER MERWE DEFINITELY HAS WHAT IT TAKES T0 FORCE HIS WAY INTO GATLAND’S TEST LINE-UP

DUHAN van der Merwe was amazing to watch going forward for Scotland during the Six Nations. His availability meant that they could vary their attack more and, when he runs onto the ball at pace and at the right angle, he is a very hard man to stop. He is such a big man and it can sometimes take two or three defenders to put him down. But he is also very quick and that combination is a bit of a nightmare for opposing teams. He will be really happy to have been given a start for the British and Irish Lions against Japan for this afternoon’s game at Murrayfield — and it is now up to him to prove to Warren Gatland that what he has been doing for Edinburgh Rugby and Scotland of late can be carried forward into the tour. It would be good to see him really come out of the blocks flying against Japan because, if he can do that and then play well in some of the warm-up games when the squad gets out to South Africa, he could force his way into the reckoning for the Test side for sure. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good wing options in the Lions squad, players like Anthony Watson, Josh Adams, Louis Rees-Zammit, Elliot Daly and Liam Williams. But, for me, Duhan offers something completely different and in the past Gatland has always liked to have big men out wide in his teams. Duhan seems to be a very resilient character. It would have taken a lot of guts to leave home in South Africa when he was in his early 20s before heading to France and then on to Scotland. He also had injury issues when he first joined Edinburgh, but he managed to battle back from them and he has just got better and better. The one thing that he will be looking to improve on with the Lions is his defence. He sometimes gets caught out of position and that is something the Springboks may try to capitalise on. However, the South African guys will also know just how dangerous he can be with ball in hand as some of them will have grown up playing with or against him. So he is certainly an attacking weapon that the Lions may use quite a lot in the next few weeks.

BRYAN HABANA is a pundit for Channel 4 at BT Murrayfield today, with live coverage of the British and Irish Lions v Japan starting from 2.15pm.