Felipe Contepomi issues ‘rugby fan’ verdict on Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and describes Argentina’s failed six-two sub tactic as ‘beauty of coaching’
Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi has spoken about the performance of South Africa's Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, inset
Argentina boss Felipe Contepomi has shared his thoughts on the man of the match display from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu that catapulted the Springboks to their 67-30 Rugby Championship win in Durban.
Contepomi’s Pumas had travelled to South Africa for the Round Five fixture still in the title hunt as all four teams had two wins and two losses after four rounds of matches.
However, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu in inspired form for Rassie Erasmus’ hosts, Argentina fell apart in a nine-try drubbing in which they finished the match reduced to 14 players as they had run out of subs after going for a six-two bench split.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu accounted for 37 of South Africa’s points, scoring three tries and kicking eight conversions and two penalties to beat the previous record of 35 set by Percy Montgomery against Namibia in 2007.
‘One of those players that light up the sport…’
As an ex-Test rugby out-half, Contepomi could be nothing but impressed by the damage inflicted by the 23-year-old. “I am not good at stats, but you can tell he is a brilliant player,” said the Argentina head coach in the Kings Park aftermath.
“Obviously, when you are the coach on the opposite team, you don’t want him to be playing there, but as a rugby fan, it’s one of those players that light up the sport.”
That glowing reference aside to Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Contepomi was otherwise left at his media briefing to sift through the wreckage of a wounding Argentine setback that kept them bottom of the Championship and out of the title race heading into Round Six, where his team take on the table-topping Springboks in London next Saturday.
Asked what positives he took out of Round Five hammering, he replied: “Tough question. Especially in the first half, when maybe we didn’t have that much territory, we could stay there (in the scoreboard), and also when we had the ball we played some good rugby. But there is a lot of things to get better at.
“So we are going to review. We have a long flight to London and we will review the game and be very honest with each other and try to get better for next weekend. That’s the beauty of this sport; we have another game in seven days, and we are going to prepare accordingly for that game.”
That review will include a look at how Argentina were left a player short for the final part of the match after their decision to go with a bench consisting of six forwards and only two backs backfired because they suffered too many backline injuries.
“Those are a bit of the risks you take when you go six-two,” shrugged the head coach. “I know we had the chance of one of the forwards playing in the backline as well, but where we got a bit stuck was the last eight minutes when we had to play with 14 because, unfortunately, we had an injury and we couldn’t replace him because we didn’t have anyone else to replace.
“We had to play with 14, but those are the risks you run when you bring on everyone before the 70th minute or when you have a six/two. It’s part of rugby and that’s the beauty of coaching as well.”
Getting beaten on a nine-three try count and by a margin of 37 points was a flashback to the dark days of Argentine rugby before they became an established tier one nation. Despite the battering, Contepomi spoke up for his team in the fallout, insisting he was still proud of them.
“Look, I would like to think we can fight harder, but one thing I always notice and I value a lot is the spirit and the hard work of the boys. It’s a team that works really hard throughout the week,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t transfer that onto the pitch today and we couldn’t stay in the fight when we had to. But yes, the guys work hard and I am very proud of them because of the way they work week in week out and the massive effort they put in. So yeah, I am proud of them.”
Where did it get away from them? “Look, South Africa were too strong for us, especially at the end of the first half and then in the beginning of the second half. Once you are behind against South Africa with the power they have, the physicality and so on, we found it difficult. It’s something for us to learn.
“It’s always great to come and play in South Africa but we know the massive challenge we face when we come here because it’s a very proud rugby nation and the stadium was magnificent.
“There was a great atmosphere and for some of our guys who played for the first time in South Africa, some young lads came into this rugby country for the first time and experience that, it will be a good learning experience.”
Skipper Julian Montoya added: “As Felipe said, we fought but we need to fight more. You need to go to the next level; we know that is the best team in the world in their backyard, and we didn’t deliver in that way.
“It hurts a lot. It hurts… As a team, we need to review the game. It’s going to hurt, but it must hurt as well. We are going to do a review; it’s not going to be a nice one. But we need to be tough on ourselves. This can’t happen again.
“We need to be better. To be fair to South Africa, they played really well but we couldn’t come back from difficulties as we usually do. We weren’t precise enough; we lost the contact against a team that is really pragmatic and then they have a lot of skills on the ball.
“We are going to review it and be ready for (next) Saturday… It’s about being together, knowing what we did wrong, being critical with ourselves, and then regrouping and going again.”
That Round Six regrouping won’t involve out-half Tomas Albornoz or No.9 Gonzalo Garcia, who have suffered respective muscle and concussion injuries. Nicolas Roger and Gonzalo Bertranou and Nicolas Roger have been called up to the squad.
