Akker van der Merwe and Wilco Louw did not return to South Africa for a pension payout. They played starring roles up north and they know more of the same for the Bulls is their ticket back into the Bok squad.
Both players have had a taste of the Boks. Van der Merwe has played three Tests at hooker and Louw’s propped for the Boks in 14 Tests.
Both have enough years in them to be an investment for the 2027 Springboks World Cup title defence and both can make a statement against the world-class Leinster front row in Saturday’s URC semifinal at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
Van der Merwe, a good player when he made his Test debut in 2016, is a better player for his experience in Manchester, England, where he played 70 matches for the Sales Sharks and scored a remarkable 31 tries.
Before that he played 38 times for the Sharks in Super Rugby and Currie Cup and 71 matches for the Lions in Super Rugby and the Currie Cup. There were 16 matches for the Leopards at the start of his professional career in 2013 and his journey also took him to Paris for two matches in the colours of Racing 92.
Van der Merwe has also played four times for the famed Barbarians.
His form for the Bulls has been outstanding and he has added grunt and maturity to the Bulls front row and to the Bulls collective forwards effort. He scores plenty tries from the line-out drive but he is no one-trick pony.
His all-round game is of international quality and his brother Duhan (van der Merwe’s) success for Scotland and the British and Irish Lions would only have added to Akker’s desire to play Test rugby again.
Leinster’s two match-day squad hookers started for Ireland against the Springboks in the 13-8 World Cup pool stage win. The duo of Dan Sheehan and Ronan Kelleher are among the best in the game.
Louw, brought back to South Africa by Bulls director of rugby Jake White, has given the Bulls set piece a potency that was lacking in previous campaigns.
He also wants to add to his 14 Test appearances and, like Van der Merwe, he is an improved version of the player that left the Stormers and Western Province after 103 matches in search of a new challenge.
That challenge involved a five-match stint at French club Toulon in 2019 and then four years at London’s Harlequins.
Louw and Van der Merwe have added gravitas to the Bulls and the hosts have a pack that can battle any in the game, at club level or one made up exclusively of Test players.
Leinster is that kind of pack, loaded with internationals to start and finish a match. It is why they have been dominant up north for so long.
The Leinster match 23 that played Toulouse in the recent Champions Cup final included 21 internationals, 18 of them having played for Ireland in the past 12 months.
The Bulls, who are without injured World Cup wingers Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie, are light on Test Springboks, but they are not light on players who have already played Test rugby and who have triumphed in many a bruising battle at club level.
The Bulls, with the advantage of playing at home because of a second-place finish in the league, won’t doubt their ability to win on Saturday because they are one of only a handful of teams to have beaten a full-strength Leinster and they did this in Dublin in the URC semifinal two seasons ago.
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