Munster Rugby and the IRFU are pleased to confirm the signing of Springbok hooker Marnus van der Merwe on a two-year contract ahead of the 2026\/27 season, subject to being granted a valid work permit.<\/p>\n
Powerful and abrasive, 29-year-old Van der Merwe marked his international debut with two tries against Georgia last July.<\/p>\n
He also helped the Springboks to the Rugby Championship title, featuring in the wins over New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n
From the province of Mpumalanga, van der Merwe played underage rugby with the Pumas before making the move to Cheetahs, where he made his PRO14 debut in 2018.<\/p>\n
After winning the Currie Cup with Cheetahs in 2023, he joined Scarlets in the summer of 2024 and made an instant impact.<\/p>\n
His first season in Wales saw him named in the URC Elite XV alongside Craig Casey and Tom Farrell.<\/p>\n
Van der Merwe\u2019s standout performances were also recognised by Scarlets supporters and he was named their Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
His strong form in 2024\/25 earned an international call-up from Rassie Erasmus and he made his first three appearances for the Springboks last year.<\/p>\n
He has made 38 appearances for the Scarlets since his debut in September 2024.<\/p>\n
Outlining his excitement at joining Munster Rugby in the summer, van der Merwe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited and honoured to be joining such a prestigious club, with such a proud rugby history. I want to finish the season strong with the Scarlets, before tackling this new challenge with Munster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Munster Rugby General Manager Ian Costello said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are delighted to have signed a player of Marnus\u2019 calibre ahead of next season and he will add to the strength of our front row.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has been one of the best hookers in the URC over the past two years resulting in a call up to the Springboks squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is an physical, abrasive hooker, very strong in the set-piece, excellent over the ball, and now has demonstrated his ability to perform at international level.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarnus is passionate, and extremely ambitious and has the qualities that will make him a really good fit to our playing group. We look forward to welcoming him to Munster this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Munster Rugby and the IRFU are pleased to confirm the signing of Springbok hooker Marnus van der Merwe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-308293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}