Springboks: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s eye-catching stats following brilliant display against Wallabies
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has made a great start to life with the Springboks-Alamy
Young Springboks ace Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was a surprise call to start at fly-half against the Wallabies, but he proved the doubters wrong with a remarkable performance.
The versatile back was excellent in most facets of the game, and his style of play really brought the new South African attack to life as he looked to adopt an expansive style of rugby from the get-go.
He was heavily involved in most of the positive plays during the 33-7 win, and that is certainly reflected in his stats.
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Attacking prowess
Feinberg-Mngomezulu was clearly brought in for his more attacking approach to the game, and he really stood out in this area.
His distribution skills came to the fore against the Wallabies, as he came up with 15 passes and crucially also grabbed an assist. These passes proved crucial in bringing the likes of Jesse Kriel, Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse into the fold, which in turn helped to win the game.
He may have been drafted in for his playmaking skills, but he also proved to be a decent threat with ball-in-hand too. He chewed up a decent 34 metres from just seven carries across his 80-minute stint, an average of 4.9 metres per carry.
The wily fly-half also managed to beat three defenders and make a clean line break as well in an impressive attacking display.
He was also solid off the tee. Despite missing his first atttempt at goal, he recovered quickly to slot the following four kicks to give him a personal haul of eight points in the game.
Standing tall in defence
Again, he may have been selected based on what we have seen of him in attack, but he proved he is also a fine defender in his own right with some impressive tackle stats.
He came up with 12 successful tackles from his 16 attempts, which puts him at a nice 75% success rate for the game. This is even more impressive when you consider the only people to best this total were Ben-Jason Dixon and Pieter-Steph du Toit.
Next up
Following his impressive display in the opening Test, it is likely he will retain his spot for the repeat fixture this weekend. He needs to match this level of performance again though, with the likes of double World Cup winner Handre Pollard waiting in the wings.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu and his men now prepare for that game in Perth, and then they venture across the ditch to face the All Blacks.
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