Malcom Marx could be the trump card for the Springboks at the Rugby World Cup.
If Springbok bosses Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber are looking for a trump card at the Rugby World Cup, it could be under their noses – or rather, on their bench.
I don’t think I am alone in feeling that Malcolm Marx could make a vital difference for the Boks if his second-half cameos became 60-minute master classes.
The impact he made last weekend in the team’s losing Rugby Championship effort against the All Blacks in Auckland was another reminder of his supreme quality, and you have to wonder if he is being under-employed by the world champions.
As good as regular starting hooker Bongi Mbonambi is, Marx offers more.
I get that the Springboks are blessed in having two of the best hookers on the planet, and only one can start, but if you see what Marx produces in 20-minute spells, surely you want that from the get-go, and for longer?
Last year’s epic Springbok defeat of the All Blacks at Mbombela Stadium is a case in point. It was Marx’s 50th Test, and he was given a rare start to mark the occasion.
He was sensational in the Boks’ 26-10 win and was man of the match.
His reward was to be dropped to the bench the following week for the return match at Ellis Park.
I was at a press conference with All Black coach Ian Foster in the week of that return match, and he expressed surprise that Marx was not starting.
Privately, he was probably also relieved. The Boks were disappointing in that game, losing 35-23, although the change at hooker was not the prime reason they lost, as it was a poor team effort.
Marx has a knack for producing epic performances against the All Blacks.
In 2017, when the Boks hosted the Kiwis at Newlands, the former Lions stalwart produced a virtuoso performance that all but clinched the match for a Bok team that was struggling that season. They lost 25-24.
In 2018, Marx was one of five nominees for World Rugby Player of the Year, despite having played mainly off the bench.
Let’s be fair to the Bok coaching staff. There is a team dynamic that they feel works best with Mbonambi starting and Marx finishing.
That was the status quo when the World Cup was won in 2019, and beating the British & Irish Lions in 2021.
But that doesn’t mean it should be cast in stone, and an experiment worth undertaking for the Boks in the four matches they have left before the World Cup in France is to give Marx an extended run as the starting No 2.
If you look at the pair head to head, there is not much between them. The 32-year-old Mbonambi has 58 Test caps, the 29-year-old Marx has 60.
The former has scored 12 Test tries, the latter 15. Both are equally adept at burrowing over the line off the back of driving mauls.
Incidentally, Marx is one try behind equalling the try-scoring record for a Bok forward – that record belongs to Schalk Burger (16 tries).
Giving Marx a proper go at hooker might just give the Boks that extra edge, and can be the difference between winning and losing a World Cup nail-biter.
