Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will be better for his rough night in Perth

Springboks star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu had his toughest night in Test rugby during South Africa’s 30-12 win over the Wallabies in Perth but will be so much better for the experience.

Playing in just his sixth Test, Feinberg-Mngomezulu had perhaps his worst game in a Springbok jersey yet but in truth wasn’t awful during the clash.

A rough night but this man isn’t all hype

As usual, Feinberg-Mngomezulu provided the Springboks with versatility in their attacking play and kicked very well out of hand.

He might have been expected to hang on to a tricky pass from Cheslin Kolbe in the first half with the tryline at his mercy.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu also missed a couple of shots at goal on the night but both were challenging angles and the rest of his play didn’t really take a knock at all.

It has been a rapid rise for Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who has been on the Springbok radar for the last couple of seasons after showing his skills at the Stormers.

All signs point to him not really getting ahead of himself but a tough night in wet conditions might provide him with a crucial reality check. There hasn’t been any suggestion that he was starting to get ahead of himself and by all accounts he is a grounded young man with a great rugby brain.

His halfback partner Morne van den Bergh had a much rougher start to the night, finding himself under pressure to clear the ball from the breakdown quickly and that would have impacted Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s ability to impact the match.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is a defensive titan

Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s defensive work has been highlighted by analysts in recent weeks, with some feeling it might actually be the most impressive part of his game.

He is an excellent tackler for someone who has so far been asked to largely play in the No 10 channel which is traditionally a bit of a weak area for Test teams.

Australia did a good job of limiting his opportunities to break the game open but Feinberg-Mngomezulu still got through his defensive work without a notable mistake on his part. Of all the No 10s available to the Springboks he is arguably the best when it comes to his tackling and general defensive work.

While the Wallabies shut him down well Feinberg-Mngomezulu still got the ball away in most instances which allowed someone like Aphelele Fassi to have an impressive game picking up ball outside of him.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu was the lynchpin of the Springboks backline and the man holding down the continuity aspect of things with so many changes around him.

He didn’t let his head drop when he missed a great opportunity to put South Africa in charge of the match early on. Rather Feinberg-Mngomezulu showed his resilience in-game by continuing to execute the planned strategy from the coaches, kicking well and running the backline smoothly.

The conditions the match were played in certainly didn’t suit Feinberg-Mngomezulu but apart from a few slip-ups he was very good across the contest prior to being withdrawn on 60 minutes.

Denny

This brings the question who would play at flyhalf  agaainst the AB's?    That will determine what plan the Springboks use as the game plan.   If they have a ball-in-hand strategy with backline usage be part of the strategy - it would be Feinberg Mngomezulu.  If the game plan is limted to forward domination it would be Pollard.

My guess is the backline would be as follows:-

15    Fassi

14    Kolbe

13    Kriel

12    De Allende

11    Arendse

10    Feinberg-Mngomezulu

9      Williams.

Tied to that is the question what the loosie situation is going to be.   I am certan about two of those are Kolis and Du Toit,    Am unsure about the number 8 though,   It will not be Wiese and is likely to be Nortje.

I would not be surprised to see the AB's loosies targeting Sacha.

He has had a fairly easy introduction to test rugby thus far and the big test for him is going to be against the AB's.

These two tests will be a true test of his skill and ability to perform under pressure, the making or breaking of him against one of the best teams.

Thumbs up Sacha.

They will obviously try - but do they have tohe pace to get o him in time tobe effective.   Brown would have warned him abut what the AB Loosies would try and achoeve ad worled pput  plan how to avoid it.   

It reminds one what Hansen said about Pollard before the 2014 test in Pretoria,   He said at the time they know excly was up to inm any match he playecd in - they do not kn ow what Polard will do.   

Now back to FM - they got glimpses of him playing agaimst    Walesw and Australia -  but would he be up to afaonmst the AB's.    Maybe they wil try and work out a basis to neutralize him.   I can forsee b alls being passed to De Allende  = a vey strong ball carrier d the Aussie loosie swill helpt tp stop him and the ball will cme back quickly to FM - with the AB loosies still at the breakdown point.    

Bring it on......all class and that at 21yrs of age! As for playing behind a strong pack....true......but the breaks he make and he's made one in all of his appearances do not initiate from behind a pack.

His defence, kicking out of hand, goal kicking and composure at  age 21 is mind boggling. 

There was absolutely nothing wrong with SFM's performance. 

There are bound to be a few more errors in wet conditions. The catch he dropped for the try...he baskets that 99/100. 

A bit gutted that the conditions didn't really allow us to see him combine well with MVDB. And who knows when they'll get another shot.

Williams is looking like the top pick though. He's been coming on and delivering early and crisply. His pace to the ruck creates noticeable time for the backs. Faf provides intangibles while Williams offers something very measurable...time. And none of the other guys really offer anything more worthwhile than the that time Williams delivers. 

Completely agree….one dropped pass doesn’t offset the maturity he showed. And the superb positioning anticipating the opponents next move…..my only concern for this kid is injury.

 Did the Libbok punters not see him fail to make the try scoring pass when he had 2 men open outside him during advantage. And Sacha is miles ahead of Libbok defensively

Faf gets a lot of stick and his box kicking is annoying. But the way he puts the opposing halves under pressure won matches. Du Pont was dangerous even if injured and Faf kept him very quiet in the WC game.coming to the end though.

Williams is so praised for his speed you could forgive him for overdoing it. But he doesn’t, he plays very conservatively and makes few mistakes. Sacha and Williams look to be playing many Bok games together.

Am confirmed nothing. He ran the ball twice. That in itself is an issue. But he ran twice for 12 metres. That triples Dud’s typically run. He also passed once….Dud might pass once every ten times he gets the ball.

Yhe problem with stats ar his disposal are worthless since it does not deal with the quality of for instance a tackle or a ball carry that is teneded 3 meters out and  a breakdown occur where the attacking side lost the ball possession.   That makes the carry valueless and unproductive.   

Valuations cannor be used for player perormance evalator the way Mozart is  abusing it/\   At best it can be used to study trends in the game as a whole.     

The problem with stats is you are too stupid to understand them.

Yes, King...how dare you be prudent?

Get on the bandwagon right now!!!

...or forever be known as a rugby ignorant.

Agree Dave, that Bfana coach was really bad for SA rugby. But there were some really good players in that team. I wouldn't say they were poor. You Julius, Hooker, a solid pack that did well in the 8 nations comp at home and then just imploded. I think Rassie was helping out and then when left Bfana like he did with the SA A side against Bristol, it all imploded. I was also very harsh on Kolbe, remember we were in the Semis against Wales and the Kolbe make a poor clearance when he should just kick the ball out, but it kept him out of the international rugby for a while, partly because coaches deemed him too small. Now we two Mighty Mouse wingers. 

blah blah blah, King.

Less talking and more getting on the bandwagon...right now!

Jokes aside, I think there are only two ways that SFM doesn't become a great. 

1) It gets coached out of him and he's forced to play a style of rugby not suited to his particular skills, or 

2) he is the luckiest player alive and what we've all seen so far are things he'll only ever replicate when very lucky. 

On the up side, I can't see either of those being true.

The lad is special. And as Moz says, him and Williams are gonna play many tests as a paring. A totally different ballgame for the next decade. 

And it's a good thing. We've now won to RWCs playing our DNA rugby, but our DNA is changing, so let's see where this bus goes...right?

Mozart

"The problem with stats is you are too stupid to understand them."

This must be the rugby idiocy statement of the year.   I used to use so-called stats the ame way as Mozart is usng it and woke up to th fact that hte stats are valueless - since he lack content - i the impact it has on the game at all.   

Take for instance tackle stats - you invented a term to discredit playes you do hate by calling it "process tackles" - it is never the case with players like Mostert because he is not on your hate list.   What is really stupid is that the value of tackles and what follows he tackles is immaterial to Mozart.   A poor tackle allows the player to go forward  in tackles with the ball coming back quickly for continuation of the attacking side continuing their attack.   A good tackle stopped ball-carries in his tracks and lead to a breakdown where both sides tried to gain possession of the ball. 

The other issue s for instance ball caries and distances carried,   I will give an example by the same player as to what happened.   In the June 2018 test Etserhuizen caried the ball for a combined otal of over 50 meters.   At the end of each tackle the Wales players got control of the ball and drove the Springboks baclk for the Sprigboks losing actual territory in the caees.    So carries are often neutralized by.    Another case is that of Wilie in he 2014 test againmst the AB' ran vortualy 90% of te elngth of the field and was eventually brought down 3 metrs from the tryline - whereupon the AB's got hold o te ball and carried the ball 70% of the territory Le Roux managed to gain.   A really short carry is often more valuable since it drew playe into the maul and when a ball  comes back quickly it allow for cpnminuation of the attacks,

You taklk about poor evaluation of performances  by te emdia and othes.   The problem is most o the people does not fall for raising issuess you invented to support your viewpoints.    The prblem with you is that you invented tsequences and what happens on the field of play.    You regularly distort what really happens on the fild and thenm dream up what should hve happened and then stat the second one of being abused when it does not happle/   The number of times you lied and distorted what actually happen in games is virtually endless.    

Once caught out on what BS you wrote on site  - you go quiet on the incident only to raise it years later.   Furthemore you always criticizes Erasmus and the same players involved  - often writing BS and at one stage you even indicated that you ignore positive contributions by players you dislike.   For instance in the case o the De Allende ty in the 2019 RWC  against Wales De Allende scored what came out as the winning try by the Springsboks.   When questioned on that one you claimed that te try was  rsult of a missd tackle by the Welsh flyhalf ad De Allende deseve no credit for te try.   In fact it ws anthe Mozart lie.   The tackle situation was actually ther wer both the flyhalf and two ther players involved in the tackle attempt on De Allende and he scored nontheless.   In the same test you blamed Du Toit for the scoring of te try by the Welsh wing and that was a total dstortion you invented to blame Du Toit - and was total BS.

That is why the BS you came up wih is never twisted by the media  in the same way as  you twisted it around,   ha i why neither players nor jurnalist are supportin the BS yu spread on site.   

  .           

A major difference in facing the All Blacks as opposed to Australia.

I am sure that SFM will take the heat and show his class against them.

Even although he's  a WP man AJ?...only pulling your socks!

What is really interesting how naturally transformation has occurred. Almost all of our top backline players are of colour here. No debate on quota selection in most positions. I'm not sure because some white players have gone abroad and we just don't see them that much. A player like Tyrone Green who is the best full back in the Premier league. 

That said, if I had to make my picks, they are all class players. 

Back to Zulu, I want to see him have a full season at 10, but he is behind Manie and will he get the first class experience or is a just covering Willemse as our next utility player. This is the same problem I have with Willemse, gifted fleet footed player, but lacks creativity and game management. He is not the best 10, 12 or 15 in SA. But he is one of the best all round players. 

So if I had to put a backline together of Manie, Sasha and Willemse. Where would I play them in my backline? Rassie sees him as a 10, and Willemse as a 15, but where do we play them. 

Manie at 10, Willemse 12 and Feinberg at 15? Manie is the only player that can't play other positions, maybe a bit of 15, but he is really poor on tackling and really poor in the collision and often turns the ball over. Highest turn over in any comp. He even got stripped in the recent aus test. 

Then we have Arendse, Moodie, Fassi and Kolbe. Kolbe the older of the bunch. 

9. Hendriks / Williams

10. Zulu / Libbok

11. Arendse

12. Willemse? 

13. Moodie

14. Kolbe

15. Fassi