Nick Mallett: Why Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu faces a tougher Test despite ‘most important’ Springboks improvement
Springboks fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and an inset of Nick Mallett.
Former Springboks head coach Nick Mallett has hailed the depth and options that Rassie Erasmus has at fly-half, but predicts that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will face a tougher task in the Rugby Championship clash at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu produced an outrageous performance in Durban, scoring a record 37 points in the victory, which included a hat-trick of tries as South Africa romped to an emphatic 67-30 win.
He has been retained in the starting lineup for the Rugby Championship decider despite stiff competition from fellow fly-halves in the squad, Handre Pollard and Manie Libbok.
Second start for Sacha
After naming his team for the clash, head coach Erasmus admitted there was a temptation to include Pollard in the starting lineup in place of the rising star, but explained that Feinberg-Mngomezulu could learn more from back-to-back starts at number 10.
“By giving him another chance in the game like this, I’m telling you straight up, it was very tempting to put Handre Pollard for us as coaches but then, he is going to learn a lot from this match, during this week we only have two training sessions, so he needs to keep his head down understand our plan because sometimes a game like that [in Durban] puts more pressure on you in the next game,” the Springboks boss said.
“So we’re putting him through his paces and experiencing this pressure, whether he does well or not, he’ll be a better player afterwards. So we tend to do it slowly, but have a nice security like Manie [Libbok] on the bench.”
Mallett echoed some of Erasmus’ sentiments and predicted that Argentina will be more wary of the threats that Feinberg-Mngomezulu pose. He believes that Los Pumas underestimated him and that the young fly-half won’t be afforded the same kind of freedom in the rematch.
However, he hailed the manner in which the Boks’ fly-halves have taken the team’s attack to another level.
“The most important improvement we’ve made is the 10, making the correct decisions, Mallett said on SuperSports’ Final Whistle show.
“Because if you have all these abilities to play, you’ve got the ability for nine and 10 to kick, full-back to kick, forwards to play out the back, forwards to take it up, forwards to do a little tip pass; Your 10 is the guy who drives the bus.
“He’s got to make good decisions. Everything was rosy on Saturday for Sacha [in Durban], he had a bit of space, and they probably didn’t realise he was as dangerous individually as he was. So, that’s going to close down. He won’t have the same kind of space this weekend.
“Then we’ll see how good he is when he doesn’t have that space, but there is space elsewhere. How good is he at making sure that the nine puts it into that space, or he passes to a centre who puts there, or he kicks it into that space.
“So those are learnings that I think Sacha will need to have for this weekend.”
Springboks fly-half depth
The ex-head coach further assessed South Africa’s playmaker stocks, which he believes no other team in international rugby can match.
That makes Erasmus’ charges difficult to analyse, as the opposition doesn’t know which number 10 they will be facing on any given weekend.
“Manie is a dry weather player, I would say, even though he’s improved his goal-kicking – he has always been good kicking out of hand, but his goal-kicking has really improved,” he began.
“Sacha looks as though he’s got the ability to kick and to play.
“Handre [Pollard] is obviously really good in a tight game, territory kicking, and he sticks to a plan, physically quite good, takes it to the line, and can be strong in contact.
“We are very fortunate. How many teams can honestly say that they’ve got three great fly-halves? You are not sure which one Rassie is going to pick. Hopefully, our team is going to play as well, and according to the plan that is on the table for that week, with whoever plays. I don’t think there’s any other team in the world that’s got that.”
