The All Blacks selection where England great ‘would really love to be proved wrong’ and ‘the gold dust’ the Springboks need for Greatest Rivalry series
Ruben Love of the All Blacks, left, and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu of the Springboks
England greats Anthony Watson and Ben Youngs have waded into the debate over the starting fly-halves for the keenly anticipated Greatest Rivalry series featuring the Springboks and the All Blacks.
Rassie Erasmus and Dave Rennie will confirm their respective South Africa and New Zealand teams on Thursday for Saturday’s series opener in Johannesburg. It will be followed by further matches in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Baltimore in the USA, where the series winner will be installed as favourites to win the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
Plenty of the selection hype surrounding the build-up to Saturday’s first Test has centred on who the respective No.10s will be. After missing last month’s Nations Championship through injury, which resulted in the No.10 jersey rotating between Manie Libbok, Handre Pollard and the debut-making Vusi Moyo across the wins over England, Scotland and Wales, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was restored to the Springboks starting XV for their August 8 win away to Argentina in Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile, having been the All Blacks’ preferred No.10 for their Nations Championship wins at home versus France, Italy and Ireland, Ruben Love has started just once so far on tour in South Africa – last Tuesday’s victory in Durban over the Sharks.
“He unlocked a part of New Zealand’s attack that we haven’t seen for a few years…”
Rennie opened the tour with Beauden Barrett at No.10 versus the Stormers, with Josh Jacomb chosen to start last Saturday versus the Bulls in Pretoria, and the competition for the Test shirt has heightened with Richie Mo’unga’s arrival in South Africa last Friday as the squad replacement for the injured midfielder, Billy Proctor.
Mo’unga hasn’t played Test rugby since starting the 2023 Rugby World Cup final as New Zealand’s No.10, but he is now eligible for Test selection having returned from Japan to take up a contract at home that began with NPC action for Canterbury.
The recent international selection rotations have created intrigue about who the Springboks and the All Blacks will name at 10 for the start of the Greatest Rivalry Test series and who can potentially hold the jersey through to the World Cup next year in Australia.
It’s a debate that has even piqued the interest of two retired England greats, and they teased the topic out on the latest episode of For The Love of Rugby. Teeing up the segment, Youngs, the record English men’s caps holder, said: “We’ve got two of the best teams in the world, New Zealand and South Africa – and I want to chat around the fly-halves.
“You got Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and you got Ruben Love. Now they’re both young; I mean Ruben Love’s very new to international rugby, Sacha has been unavailable for injury, and the World Cup is just out for just over a year away. Will those guys be leading the two best teams in the world to the World Cup, or will they revert to experience with Handre Pollard and Richie Mo’unga?”
Watson, who started five Tests for the British and Irish Lions across their respective 2017 and 2021 trips to New Zealand and South Africa, replied: “We’ve got to see how they go in this series first. I was pretty impressed by Ruben Love and how he took to international rugby at 10 in the Nations series just been.
“I thought he looked controlled, and I thought he unlocked a part of New Zealand’s attack that we haven’t seen for a few years. Whether that’s Dave Rennie’s effect or whether that’s Ruben Love, it’s hard to say right now, but I’ve got to give credit where credit’s due and say that he took to it very well.
“They’re both similar players, you know, in a lot of regards. Sacha and Ruben, loose is the wrong word but they have both got the ability to break a game up on their own with footwork, with breaking the defence.
“They’re both not afraid of a bit of contact or a bit of niggle, and they’ve both got very good kicking games. So, there’s not much separating the two of them. I would say Sacha’s probably a little bit more physical than Reuben. It probably comes because Sacha’s a larger human generally.”
Whereas Watson was of the belief that Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Love were similar type operators, Youngs produced stats to make his argument that Feinberg-Mngomezulu provided the greater running threat. “There are definitely similarities, but Sacha still edges it in terms of running threat against Ruben Love,” insisted the former England scrum-half. “We’ve got some stats actually.
“If we took Sacha last year in terms of the 2025 Rugby Championship versus 2026 Nations Championship for Ruben Love because Sacha was unavailable, and we take it from carries, Sacha had 34 carries, Ruben had 14, and then he actually took defenders beaten, Sacha had 20, Reuben had nine.
“Now, I know that Ruben’s a threat, but I feel like Sacha is more of an individual threat, more of someone that can get over the line individually. And I reckon there’s been a massive shift through fly-halves. You’ve seen it with (Matthieu) Jalibert and what he’s doing, right?
“You’ve seen it with Finn Russell over the years, but Jalibert has taken it to another level in terms of being that threat, a running threat. Mo’unga was it for a long time until he went to Japan. He’s on his way back now. But the ability to be a running threat as a 10, I feel like Sacha’s taken that again to another level along with Jalibert.”
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Watson disagreed: “I’m pretty firm in my belief that they’re very similar running threats. Ruben Love has got naughty footwork. Like one-on-one, he is dangerous. Show-and-go-wise, he is in the same vein as a Sacha or a Finn; he can make linebreaks that way.
“Yes, the evidence that I’ve got of that is not from international rugby. That’s from him playing for the Hurricanes, but even still, he has showcased that running ability, which will come out in international rugby sooner rather than later if we haven’t seen it already.
“The body of work that Sacha’s got in international rugby is greater than Ruben Love’s, so it’s easier to rely on that when you’re comparing the two. But Ruben Love has got just as much potential as Sacha does. Ruben Love looks like a real operator.
“The threat for them both is different because Richie Mo’unga is more than likely eventually going to force his way back into that 10 jersey. You know, it’s almost like the second coming of Christ when he comes back to New Zealand. You know, everyone makes way for Richie.
“There’s been so much fanfare about him being away in Japan and he’s going to solve the problems and all this stuff that I think he does come straight back in for a period, whereas on the Springboks side they’re going to continue playing this horses-for-courses style of tactics at fly-half which is dependent on opposition, we will either pick Manie Libbok, we’ll either pick Sacha or we’ll pick Handre Pollard and then you throw in Vusi Moyo as well who made his debut in the Nations Championship just been.
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“They have got our different 10s who can play different styles, so different challenges for both of them, but we saw in the big games that happened at the back end of last year that Sacha was the No.1 10 whereas Ruben Love has probably got a bit more of a difficult journey to get that nailed down.”
Watson then quizzed Youngs on who his starting 10s would be if the outcome of the Greatest Rivalry Test series came down to the fourth and final match in Baltimore on September 12. “For South Africa, it’s still Sacha really,” reckoned Youngs.
“The way the game’s going at the moment is multi-phase attack, influence with the ball, Tony Brown’s influence and everything he’s done; he’s done wonders at South Africa. The way the Boks want to play, they have still got the ability to beat you up and use that forward power, set-piece and everything like that.
“But the gold dust, like the ability to break a game up, Sacha sits ahead of the others. If you want the control, kicking your goals like Test match, ice man, been there, done it, will not let you down, Pollard’s your man. Of course he is. But if you want the gold dust, if you want to break up the game and go with this attacking theme, which seems to be the case, then Sacha has to be the one, where if you look at New Zealand’s boat, they go Mo’unga.
“Ruben Love, the thing that probably gives them a headache is the combination with (Cam) Roigard, but Roigard is good enough to easily be slotting with Mo’unga or whoever, and they’ve played together in the past. So, New Zealand would twist and go Mo’unga, and South Africa would stick and go with Sacha.
“South Africa will run with him when he’s fit and available. He’ll be their first choice 10 (at the World Cup). His influence, his running threat, his ability to break up the game is super impressive. That’s the way the 10s are going to be. I’ve seen it with Jalibert. We mentioned that with running 10s, you’ve got to be a threat. You have to be a threat.
“They have got a lovely luxury of being able to bring on Pollard if need be, Manie Libbok, see how that works in terms of Sacha and Manie are that sort of more attacking fly-halves where Pollard’s more that controlling fly-half.
“And with Ruben Love, when Richie Mo’unga returns, it’s hard to see New Zealand not going back to him. There’s a reason he’s returning, right? Like, it’s very hard for them not to go with him; he’s proven he is one of the best 10s in the world.
“Hasn’t played Test level for a while. A year out from the World Cup, or just over, he’s going to be mad for it. He’s coming back for one thing, and that’s the World Cup. So, New Zealand will go with Richie Mo’unga and South Africa will back Sacha all the way through.”
Watson responded: “Would I agree on Sacha? Yes, I probably would right now, but I would really love to be proved wrong; I’d really love to see Ruben Love take hold of that 10 jersey. Not from nowhere, but from sort of everyone looking forward to Richie Mo’unga coming back; he’s going to save us [New Zealand], he’s going to save us. I would love for someone like Ruben Love to be like, ‘Nah, I got this’.”
