“IT WAS GOOD.” The succinct response from Heinke van der Merwe after winning his second Springbok cap and getting the better of Leinster teammate Mike Ross in successive scrums.
Having faced Ross in training drills for two and a half years, the South African finally got the opportunity to take him on at an Aviva Stadium he had planned to attend as a spectator only a week previous.
Van der Merwe arrived on the pitch with his side 13-12 up, 63 minutes on the clock and Ross close to spent after a grueling evening’s work against CJ van der Linde.
Ross told TheScore.ie, “With the South Africa game, I was disappointed how I finished up. Myself and Heinke know each other pretty well so that probably helped [him] a bit.”
“I reviewed those videos a couple of times,” he added, “and with the first one it was the referee’s interpretation. I nearly went early, stopped myself, then he was on top of me and I fought my way out of it but it was too late by then.”
The penalty conceded by Ross made it a four point game and ruled drop goals or penalties out of Ireland’s late gameplan.
“Scrumming is about the whole pack so they all must get a pat on the back,” said van der Merwe. He chose words, and opportunities, carefully.
No rest for Ross
Expectations that Ross, as the country’s premier tighthead prop, would be rested against Fiji proved unfounded but the Cork native is pleased with the ‘good work-out’ provided by the Fijians.
Argentina, and their pack, are different beasts entirely but Ross insists a win, rather than ranking point permutations, is the team’s focus.
He said, “They’ve benefited hugely from the Rugby Championship. Playing against the top three sides in the world can only bring your game on.” Ross added:
I know they’ve had issues with player release from French clubs. This weekend Juan Figallo is gone but they’ve brought in Maximiliano Bustos, who is a very good scrummager, so I don’t think they’ve lost anything there.”
Ross was impressed with the Ulster trio of Craig Gilroy, Luke Marshall and Paddy Jackson in the 53-0 win over Fiji and reveals that training this week has had some extra bite to it.
The prop has been a fixture in the side since he started against Italy in the 2011 Six Nations and has easily fended off positional challenges from Declan Fitzpatrick, Jamie Hagan and Stephen Archer.
The arrival of Michael Bent from New Zealand has thrown up a new front row contender but Ross sees it as an extra reason to raise his game.
“I think everyone is under pressure. If you’re not thinking that you’re being too relaxed … That’s one of the things that has come out of this series – that there are two, if not three, players pushing for every spot.”
“The way I look at it,” he added, “is I’m on the runway but there’s a big queue, or taxi, of planes behind me but I have to stay on there as long as I can.”
Ross is overrated. Just an average prop.
Mr magoo kindly shut the f#%k up you idiot
Having summoned up all your powers of wit and repartee surely you could have done better than that.
Yeah, he wasn’t at all missed when he went off injured against England in the last Six Nations!
@Brian Whelan. He was missed against England as we had no specialist TH on the bench. I think we can all agree that Court isn’t a TH…. lol
I think magoo is right. His an over-rated prop . All he was good for was scrums and his making up excuses now. I think he should just slip out the back door.
The likes of Bent Kilcoyne Healy are the types of props Ireland need. Props that can just do more than scrumage.
what a crock… some people here really don’t have an iota… Ross was a below average prop for Munster and was never going to get past pooch. He matured quite late it seems and is now a very good prop. I’m not sure he’s overrated in that I’m not sure anybody rates him any higher than what he is. A very decent international prop. Not the best but up there…..
At what stage do players say, “he’s just better than me” and not be going on about slip-ups and all that old baloney?
Mike Ross is an honest run of the mill prop. He does what it says on the tin. Locks the scrum to a high standard , does his role at line out , ruck and maul times. The basics for every prop. In terms of a dynamic ball carrying prop , he is not that at provincial or international level. However John Hayes was flogged to death and Ross has being an able replacement. The provinces have not being producing quality international tight heads. We have Hagan who is now third choice at leinster , Loughney who covers both sides for connacht , Archer for Munster and Fitzpatrick of Ulster all who could develop into quality international props in time but need to get more game time at provincial level first.
Bent coming in looks like he has what it takes on limited viewing and I fancy him to be our starting prop come spring.
But to slate Ross because he is the one best equipped to fulfill the role at this moment and time is ridicolous.
He was good enough to hammer the South African scrum. Kidney wasn’t good enough to work out how to use his bench in modern rugby. He’s overrated: he’s right at the bottom of the heap in international coaches. And now he’s laid the blame on one of our key players for his mistake. His dislike of Ross when he was at Munster and his otherwise inexplicable failure to pick our best tight head for so long are shown up as the small minded vindictiveness they were.
Disgraceful behaviour from any coach, let alone one supposed to lead the national team.
Begone has been. Don’t wait until you’ve sucked more life out of the team and money from the IRFU by sticking around to the bitter end of your contract. Leave now.
Ross played junior rugby for a good chunk of his time at Con, Harlequins took a gamble in signing him, a gamble that worked out, there was no Munster dislike just better props at the time (Hayes & pucciarello).