The Canada international helped the West Walians storm Scotstoun to earn a 26-14 triumph over his former team Glasgow Warriors. The win propelled the Scarlets above the European Champions Cup quarter-finalists and into the top four. They will be hoping to make it four PRO12 wins in a row on Friday night when bottom side Zebre come to town on Friday night.
Head coach Wayne Pivac has been boosted by the returns of Aled Davies and Steff Evans from the Wales squad as they aim to cement their play-off spot with a bonus-point victory at Parc y Scarlets. And van der Merwe, who departs for Newcastle at the end of the season, is only looking up the table as he aims to finish on a high.
He said: “I want to finish off strongly at the Scarlets. We want to make sure that we get some quality performances in to the end of the season and finish as high as we possibly can in the table.
“We did our homework on Glasgow. It’s a good time to play them during the Six Nations. It could have gone either way on a different day. We came out the better team. Glasgow’s a quality side with quality players; they’re good at bringing young guys through and that’s good to see. Our boys worked really hard and we were a bit more clinical than them in the 22.”
Zebre are rock bottom of the PRO12 with only one win to their name this season, and have not won since October. Ospreys earned a 40-10 triumph in Italy in their last game, so Scarlets will be hoping to put the pressure on third placed Leinster, who face Edinburgh Rugby this weekend.
