Youth and amateur rugby Van der Merwe represented the side in the 2006 and 2007 editions of the Under-21 Provincial Championship. He then played club rugby for local amateur side Robertson until 2011.
Boland Cavaliers In 2012, he was included in the squad for the
2012 Vodacom Cup. He made his first class debut by coming on as a late replacement in their first match of the season, a 22–51 defeat to
Western Cape rivals . After one more appearance off the bench in their next match against the , he made his first senior start against the other team from the
Western Cape in the competition, the . He also started their next match, a 27–30 defeat to defending champions,
Argentine side and scored his first try in a senior match when he dotted down just before half-time. He also featured in the
2012 Currie Cup First Division for a Boland Cavaliers team trying to defend the title they won in
2011; he started their first match of the season against the to make his
Currie Cup debut, but suffering a 20–25 defeat to the team from
Port Elizabeth. After a further five appearances, he scored his first Currie Cup try against the same opposition in a 19–57 defeat and followed it up with his second a week later in a 33–36 defeat to the . Boland eventually finished sixth to miss out on a semi-final play-off berth, with Van der Merwe making eleven appearances. He played in three of Boland's matches during the
2013 Vodacom Cup competition and also kept up his knack of scoring against the , but ended on the losing side on all three occasions as his side finished bottom of the Southern Section. They performed slightly better in the
2013 Currie Cup First Division, finishing fifth and just outside a semi-final spot. Van der Merwe made six starts, played off the bench on two occasions and scored two tries in their 20–7 victory over the in Round Four of the competition. He didn't represent Boland Cavaliers in provincial competition in 2014, but did return in the
2015 Vodacom Cup competition, starting their 10–25 defeat to in
Caledon in their opening match of the competition. ==References==