Malcolm Marx is two tries away from being the highest try scorer among forwards in Springbok history. It is a remarkable strike rate, given he has only started 50% of his 60 Test matches.
Marx averages 52 minutes a Test and since the start of the 2019 World Cup has often been used as a finisher for the Springboks. For me, he is the best hooker in the world and I’d want to see him start in Test matches and play until he has emptied the tank. Then I’d introduce Bongani Mbonambi, who in his 58 Tests averages just under 30 minutes per Test.
The Springboks have been blessed with quality of hookers in Marx and Mbonambi, just as they were in 2007 with John Smit in his prime and Bismarck du Plessis emerging as the game’s best between 2008 and 2011.
I appreciate why Rassie Erasmus fashioned the shift in Marx’s role during the 2019 World Cup, and it added a dimension that suffocated opponents in the final 30 minutes of the match. Marx led the famed Bomb Squad, a collection of super subs.
But four years on, I’d want Marx there from the first whistle. His try-scoring strike rate gets a lot of attention, but it is among the less relevant Marx statistics, as he would be the first to acknowledge that he is a try-scoring beneficiary of the attacking Springboks line-out maul.
The statistic that is the most telling is how many turnovers Marx forces and what doesn’t get enough airtime, perhaps because it is down to interpretation and there isn’t a definite number, is just how much opposition ball he slows down.
Marx is as good as any specialist loose-forward fetcher over the ball, and comfortably No.1 in the No.2 jersey.
Marx’s impact against the All Blacks in the 35-20 defeat in Auckland a fortnight ago was immediate in how he troubled the hosts at the breakdown and forced a momentum shift in minutes 45 to 60.
Marx’s impact against the All Blacks in the 35-20 defeat in Auckland a fortnight ago was immediate in how he troubled the hosts at the breakdown and forced a momentum shift in minutes 45 to 60 — a shift that the Boks could not maximise in a comeback that was not sustained in the final quarter.
Marx, since his Test debut in 2016, has been lauded in South Africa and globally for his on-field efforts and his display against the All Blacks at Newlands in 2017 earned him a 10/10 in the New Zealand Herald.
A year ago, in Mbombela, when the Boks dismantled the All Blacks, Marx was again the most dominant and prominent Springbok. He did this starting and the year before that he did it against the All Blacks in Australia as a finisher.
Marx, whether he starts or finishes a Test, always impresses. My argument is that I’d rather have him starting and going for as long as he can, than strategically interjecting him into a game that could already be lost after 30 minutes.
Marx’s currency and worth to the Springboks can’t be overstated and it transcends numbers. As a hooker, his disruption of opposition plays is unparalleled and the loose-forward dimension he adds, does not come at the expense of his primary function as a hooker.
His line-out throw accuracy is consistent, his appreciation of his role at the back of the maul is obvious in his try-scoring effectiveness, and defensively you won’t see him missing tackles.
He is a class player and has shown as much class in embracing whatever playing role the Bok coaches have predetermined for him.
Marx, when he starts, sets a tone — one of positive intent.
For me, his skill set is too good to have spent 28 minutes of every Test match watching from the sidelines, as has been the case in his international career.
Marx has played 3,117 of a possible 4,800 minutes for the Boks and in the next few months, which could include a World Cup final in Paris on the 28th October, the Boks can only be the beneficiary of his average game time going from 52 minutes to 70-plus minutes.
He has shown throughout his professional career that his conditioning can last 80 minutes. In an ideal world I’d want him starting and finishing, such is his incomparable quality.
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