Joe Schmidt reveals the Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu ‘intangible’ which makes the Wallabies task ‘quite difficult’
Springboks playmaker Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt.
Joe Schmidt very much understands the threat young talent Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu brings to the game after watching him dominate last weekend.
The 22-year-old only made his South Africa debut earlier in June but the playmaker has taken to Test match rugby seamlessly.
On his first Test start, Feinberg-Mngomezulu impressed as the Springboks thrashed the Wallabies 33-7 in the first round of the Rugby Championship in Brisbane.
Second successive start
Rassie Erasmus has made 10 changes for the second clash in Perth but the youngster has retained his place at fly-half.
“The game that Sacha brought last week I thought was pretty impressive,” Schmidt told reporters. “I thought we shut him down one time and it was out the back of the hand and on a plate for the guy outside him. Those sort of things, those intangibles, they do make the job of shutting them down quite difficult.
“If we can be accurate and make better use of our opportunities [we can improve]. And then that discipline in the first half – I thought we were unlucky a few times – but that’s going to happen sometimes and we can’t stack penalties on top of penalties, and allow them into the corner.”
David Campese’s predictions: Springboks ‘innovation’ hailed
Schmidt will hope that the alterations both teams have made will benefit the Wallabies, whose run of three successive victories ended at Suncorp Stadium.
Australia failed to deal with the power of the Springboks, while their defence was also cut to shreds by the pace and dexterity of the visitors’ backline.
They ultimately struggled in most facets of the game last weekend but they are, on paper at least, facing a weaker and less cohesive South African side in Round Two.
Schmidt believes that it is still an excellent Boks team, however, who will offer different threats to the squad that played in Brisbane.
‘Very hard to breathe’
“Our contest areas, it was them bringing the physicality on the front foot. Even if we had the ball, it was very hard to breathe at times,” he said.
“That’s exactly the way they like it. They don’t need the ball to attack you. At the same time, they attacked pretty well with the ball and bringing Lukhanyo Am in to 12, he’s got that short kicking game – that’s a real weapon.
“[Makazole] Mapimpi on the wing, [Aphelele] Fassi at the back; a bit more of a big, strong running game as opposed to the distribution that Willie le Roux has.”
