Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu ‘cringing’ at hype as Springboks star addresses Dan Carter talk

Rising Springboks star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is not entertaining comparisons to All Blacks legend Dan Carter.

The 23-year-old playmaker has enjoyed a rapid rise into the Bok set-up after debuting for the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals during the 2021/22 season.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu made his Test debut last year against Wales and went on to play seven more times for South Africa before injury struck during the Rugby Championship.

Pressure of expectation

The youngster’s performances for his club and country have earned him comparisons to double World Cup-winning All Black Carter, and while he is trying to block out the noise, he admits some of it may still be seeping through.

“At this point, I’m cringing a bit,” he told News24 of seeing his face on billboards.

“Look, the young version of me would be so proud, so I’m not going to sit here and complain about it. But sometimes I drive past and block my face – it’s enough for the day.”

The pressure of expectation can be telling on such a young player with Stormers boss John Dobson hailing him as a ‘generational talent’.

Wary of the impact such hype can have on a youngster who has been likened to one of the greatest fly-halves of all-time, Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus explained that the coaching team is attempting to manage him well and not let him get carried away.

“For Sacha, like most of the other youngsters, he only has eight Test caps. I remember the first time Jonny Wilkinson played against us, he didn’t have a great game. But he became a great player,” Erasmus said after selecting Feinberg-Mngomezulu in the starting XV to face the Barbarians.

“Understanding what we are trying to do and believing what we are trying to do, while still being Sacha, that is what we want him to strive for.”

He added: “Everybody also hypes him up and it’s difficult to try and live up to what the people are saying, make magic every single time or do the unbelievable thing that no one thinks you can do. Sometimes it’s about balance, and Tony Brown is really working hard with him. I think he is taking it on board and understanding what we want him to do.”

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Blocking out the noise

But Feinberg-Mngomezulu is trying to block out noise and comparisons, and his mates from school are helping him do just that.

“I’m sure my subconscious feels some of it,” he said.

“But I’ve got quite a nice system in place where my friends are all guys from school – guys who don’t respect me as a Springbok. I could play nine [great] games out of 10 and they’d tell me about the one out of 10 I was bad at.

“It’s people like that who keep me on my toes and stop me from enjoying the articles too much. This is a high-pressure environment with so much scrutiny, so it’s nice to have one or two nice things said about you every now and then. I enjoy it, but I don’t indulge it – I hope it never becomes part of my make-up.”

He added: “Being patient probably comes from steady growth; the moment you stop seeing yourself grow, you probably become impatient and paranoid. I literally feel like I can grow every day in every part of my game.

“I make a lot of mistakes – in training and in matches – so I’m always growing. Because I can see the end goal, I remain patient. If I couldn’t see it, I’d be impatient and impulsive.”

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Not the first-choice 10

Erasmus has also done his bit in keeping the fly-half grounded. After an off-colour performance against Georgia in Nelspruit, the Bok boss eased the pressure off the youngster by stating that he is by no means the first-choice fly-half, with World Cup winners Manie Libbok and Handre Pollard also in the squad.

“Sacha is not necessarily the first choice number ten we have Manie who is pretty much on song, and we saw with Handre when he came on that he is pretty solid,” the head coach said.

“You can’t just look at his goal kicking, he struggled before doing pretty well but in the warm-up he got a hip pointer injury and we weren’t quite sure if we should push him through the game, but he wanted to play but that’s not an excuse for the way he kicked at poles.

“He ran it out and we like guys that try things and not just play safe and he’s certainly not one of the guys that made the most errors because of the disruptive way Georgia plays.

“We are pleased overall, it’s his second start for us this year and he is younger than the other fly-halves.”

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