THERE is no such thing as a bad French Top 14 team. They do however, have bad days. That could be down to the attitude and approach, in the case of Montpellier, of having so many hired-hands, mercenaries and imports at their disposal, as Duhan van der Merwe, who might have ticked all three of the boxes a year back, gave an insight in to during his time there.
“It felt like a holiday,” he admitted. “The weather was so nice. Training was hard, but not as hard as it is here. The sun was always shining, and the French lifestyle was so chilled and laidback. It basically felt like it was one big holiday for a year, and then I got here and learned what it was actually like,” he laughed.
Montpellier went in to today’s game with Toulon with three wins from their first six Top 14 games. For the European stage however, Montpellier look well equipped, particularly behind the scrum.
“The Champions Cup, you go up against the best of the best. If you take Montpellier at the moment, it’s probably the best of the best, it’s basically a World XV,” concedes van der Merwe.
“Take their backline, where they’ve got guys like Francois Steyn, Ruan Pienaar, Johan Goosen, Jan Serfontein – and that’s just a few of the names in their backline. So as individuals and as a team it’s going to be a massive challenge for us, but that’s why we play the game.”
And Duhan says as young player – particularly being a South African in France – he was more than looked after by a great many of Saturday’s opponents who he now considers friends.
“I learned a lot from Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Paul Willemse – the South Africa guys. I’ve definitely got a few mates there and am looking forward to playing against them. I socialised a lot with these guys and although he’s injured I’m looking forward to seeing Jacques du Plessis. The French guys were very welcoming to us but it was tough because of the language barrier.”
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