STORMERS COACH BACKS GRANT

Western Province and Stormers coach Kobus van der Merwe, believes Peter Grant could make the Springbok No10 shirt his own during South Africa's upcoming away leg of the 2007 Tri-Nations.

Most of this week's talk has surrounded Jake White's decision to rest his best players from SA's annual Australasian jaunt, with new additions Peter Grant (fly-half) and Jannie du Plessis (prop) slipping in under the radar.

Van der Merwe, however, was full of praise for Stormers and WP pivot Grant, who impressed at flyhalf for the Emerging Springboks team that won the International Rugby Board (IRB) Nations Cup earlier this month.

And with Butch James being rested, Grant - who missed most of last year's Currie Cup with a serious shoulder injury, having played the first three matches at inside centre - will slug it out with Derick Hougaard for the Bok fly-half position over the next few weeks.

Hougaard, who played fly-half for South Africa at the 2003 Rugby World Cup before falling out of favour at national level, started against Samoa last month, but White is not a massive fan of the Bulls kicking machine.

"Peter [Grant] won't disappoint, he is an excellent player in good form," said Van der Merwe to Gareth Green of rugby365.com.

Aside from Grant, Van der Merwe wished WP's other four Bok representatives the best of luck for the upcoming tour, in particular scrum-half Johannes 'Bolla' Conradie, who has not played much of late.

"Bolla just got back from injury though, so he'll be a little rusty," warned the WP coach.

Conradie has been out injured since the Super 14 competition, having undergone an elbow operation. But touring with the Boks is nothing new to the George Gregan lookalike, who made his Test debut against Wales in 2002. Conradie, who is 29 years old, has played 15 Tests between '02 and 2005.

Van der Merwe, meanwhile, backed Jake White's much-talked about rotation policy, which will see SA's top 21 players miss the trip Down Under, much to the astonishment of the powers that be in Australia and New Zealand.

Said Van der Merwe: "Jake has his plan and he knows what he wants."