Morne van den Berg is in the form of his life and ready for a "lekker challenge" against Irish legend Jamison Gibson-Park. Photo: Backpagepix
Image: Backpagepix
The United Rugby Championship clash between Leinster and the Lions this weekend is set to offer several tasty match-ups come gameday.
The Lions will certainly pick the strongest matchday 23 possible, while it remains to be seen if the Irish giants will follow a similar strategy, especially after they recently survived a bruising Champions Cup semi-final encounter against Toulon this past weekend.
If Leinster coach Leo Cullen does select his first-choice team for the clash — which sees third play fourth in the URC standings — then match-ups could see the likes of Andrew Porter scrum against Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Josh van der Flier against Ruan Venter, Caelan Doris eyeballing Francke Horn, the tournament’s leading points scorer Chris Smith tackle counterpart Harry Byrne, and Henco van Wyk lining up Garry Ringrose in the midfield, to keep it brief.
Another battle could well evolve between the two No 9s, too.
Morne van den Berg is expected to start at scrumhalf in Dublin on Saturday (18:30) and could face Ireland international Jamison Gibson-Park. The latter is a veteran of 54 Tests and, with over 160 appearances, is a club legend at Leinster.
Nonetheless, Gibson-Park has only played five URC games this season due to Leinster's squad rotation policy.
Van den Berg, meanwhile, has only collected five Test caps for the Springboks in a relatively short international career. With the likes of Cobus Reinach and Jaden Hendrikse in doubt in the coming weeks, the match-fitness of Faf de Klerk under the microscope, and the performances of Embrose Papier under intense scrutiny, the importance of ‘Krappie’ as the international season approaches cannot be understated.
The 28-year-old will surely be in the mix when the Boks kick off their Nations Championship schedule against England, Scotland, and Wales from early July.
Van den Berg is arguably playing the best rugby of his career thus far, infusing his performances with plenty of confidence and control. Continuing to test himself against the best in the world, therefore, will only help that development and his readiness for the upcoming Test window.
“Jamison is one of the best scrumhalves in the world,” said van den Berg on Tuesday, from Dublin.
“To be honest, all of their No 9s are very good. I am looking forward to the match and the type of game they bring. It is going to be a lekker challenge. Leinster have a bunch of great players and it is nice to play against those types of players.”
Should the duel with Gibson-Park not materialise, then Van den Berg could tackle the challenges of Luke McGrath (who has played the majority of URC games this season), Fintan Gunne (who has played off the bench for most of the season) or Cormac Foley.