Canadian Van der Merwe played his part on the pitch, scoring two second-half tries to take his season's tally to four after emphatically starting his account against Ospreys last week.
His final effort against Connacht secured the try-bonus point after Sean Lamont and Peter Murchie had crossed in the first half but the visitors stuck well to the Warriors on the scoreboard and were within reach with 11 minutes to go at just 22-17 down.
But up popped Van der Merwe to break Irish hearts and make amends for the Warriors' 18-13 loss to Scarlets in round two - which was their maiden match at Scotstoun since moving from Firhill over the summer.
"We were disappointed by our loss to Scarlets here and we owed it to our fans and I'm glad we did it with a four-try bonus," said Van der Merwe.
"Every point counts and you really need to deny the other side the bonus point and get four tries and I'm glad we did that.
"It's always great to have two tries and a man-of-the-match and I must say the crowd here are definitely a help when they are cheering you on and the boys dug deep, especially the forwards and they created the space for the backs."
Van der Merwe refused to take the credit for his well-taken tries and praised his teammates for making life easy for him on the wing.
"It was a great chase by Sean Lamont," he added. "The ball just popped right in front of him and I think I had one or two defenders in front of me and managed to get to the try line."
"For the second one, I'm not sure how it happened but Murchie ended up making a line break, like he's been doing all season, and put me through for the last try."
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