Penney backs van den Heever to be Munster hit

Munster head coach Rob Penney will welcome new signing Gerhard van den Heever to the province early next month with the promise the powerful wing will see a lot more ball than he enjoyed during Western Province’s run to the Currie Cup final.

The 24-year-old was a virtual spectator as Western Province lost 33-19 to The Sharks in South Africa’s provincial showpiece on Saturday, a game that marked his final appearance on home soil. Yet the Munster boss believes when van den Heever gets his hands on the ball he can cause all manner of problems for defences.

“When he gets an opportunity he’s bloody dangerous,” Penney said. “They don’t used him as much as we like to think he could be used. Hopefully he is pretty excited about the opportunities that he is going to get here.”

Van den Heever looks set to arrive in Munster in a fortnight, raising the possibility of a debut for his new team at Cardiff Blues on November 23, particularly with Simon Zebo, Keith Earls and Andrew Conway carrying injuries.

Penney, though, said that like the wing’s compatriot, the back-row forward CJ Stander, now in his second season in Ireland, van den Heever would be given as much time as he needed to adjust to northern hemisphere rugby.

“We’ll probably give him a little settling period, but he’ll be back for the middle week, in around November 10 or 11,” Penney said.

“They are a little more conservative by nature, the South Africans. In the way they play, they certainly tend to put the boot to the ball and chase a lot more than in some other areas of the world.

“But Gerhard has got an attacking skill-set that we are really keen to engage with. That’s why we got him here.

“There is an opportunity this week with the injuries that we’ve had in the back field for a couple of other young blokes to get an opportunity.

“If that comes to the fore then Gerhard’s got some challenges in front of him to try to squeeze a place.”