1 hour ago
Twenty years ago, a 23-year-old from Leeston on the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand’s South Island produced the greatest performance ever seen by a fly-half. Against the British & Irish Lions, the young lad with the movie-star jawline and hair to match scored two tries, slotted four conversions and banged over five penalties for a match haul of 33 points. He ran from deep, stitched the backline together and was pinpoint off the boot. Two decades later, Dan Carter is widely considered the best rugby player of all time.
In 20 years, how will we remember the staggering exhibition put on by a 23-year-old from Cape Town on South Africa’s southern tip? Will we regard his match haul of 37 points against Argentina in Durban as the equal of Carter’s tally at the Cake Tin in Wellington? Will three tries, eight conversions and two penalties against a very accomplished Pumasoutfit resonate with the same frequency as the coming-of-age show from a bona fide GOAT? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, the future is now and his name is Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Where to start? To put it simply, this was, by a distance, the single greatest 80 minutes ever by a South African fly-half. We can quibble if it eclipsed Carter’s jaw-dropper in 2005, but we can surely all agree that no Springboks 10 — not Handré Pollard, not Manie Libbok, not Naas Botha, nor Henry Honiball – has ever reached these heights from the first kick to the closing blast of a whistle every South African fan was hoping would never come.
He ran 134 metres. He carried 14 times. He scored his first try after kicking into space and then sprinting onto the loose ball as he ushered Canan Moodie away with a commanding hand. His second came off a step and a burst of pace at first receiver. His third was the consequence of a 360-degree pirouette from scrum-half that dummied half the population of Buenos Aires. Between that, he arrowed a 60-metre cross-field assist for Cheslin Kolbe that couldn’t have been better placed. All around the highlights was an assured sense of calm, an aura of supreme control. This was Sacha’s world. We were just lucky enough to breathe the same air.
It’s hard not to get carried away by all of this. Rassie Erasmus was eager to point out that things can change very quickly in rugby. “Sometimes you must give guys a chance to build a reputation and their skillset at Test match level,” he said afterwards. “He is definitely doing that, but patience is key.” Siya Kolisi, glowing after the win, added: “I thought Sacha was amazing. It’s not just his tries, but the way he controlled the game. He kept a cool head and put us in the right places.”
But can’t we allow ourselves a little revelry? Can we not veer into hyperbole and contemplate what a genuine superstar at fly-half might mean for South African rugby? Botha was a metronome but the joke was he always finished the game with clean shorts as he avoided close contact. Pollard remains a general with ice in his veins but his highlights reel over two and a half World Cup cycles with the Boks could fit on a TikTok reel. Libbok, like Elton Jantjies before him, has been dazzling in patches but has also wilted when the pressure is on. Is it too early to wonder if Feinberg-Mngomezulu is the complete package?
Of course, none of this happens without work done elsewhere. A rugby team functions like a wristwatch. One cog cannot turn unless others are functioning as they should and credit must go to some of the big units up front.
Jasper Wiese was brilliant. Tony Brown’s vision is evidently only possible when a rampaging No 8 provides that front-foot punch and the battering ram from Upington was immense. Pieter-Steph du Toit was doing Pieter-Steph du Toit things throughout, offering continuity in the trams, hammering everyone in blue and white, cantering over the gainline with every carry. RG Snyman’s offloads and silky touches acted as the perfect bridge between grunt and glamour, linking forwards and backs in a way that kept Argentina chasing shadows. Malcolm Marx, bruising and belligerent, was a wrecking ball at the breakdown, creating the quick ball that allowed Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and Libbok once he entered the scene, to play fast and flat.
Things are clicking. Tony-Ball, which is now an established ideology, is up and running. The coaching group has unlocked a new layer to the Springboks’ offensive identity. “We wanted to play good rugby, put the work we have done in training into the game,” said Feinberg-Mngomezulu himself post-match. “Playing transition scenarios and getting the right balance between kicking and running. I think we did that.” It is from this foundation that a supremely gifted individual took flight and, for 80 minutes, made rugby look impossibly easy.
As the brandy hangovers wear off and as we pick out last night’s biltong from our molars, can we consider that we might be blinking into a new world where everything we thought we knew about Springbok rugby can categorically be consigned to a bygone age?
Twenty years ago, Dan Carter set the standard. Last night, Feinberg-Mngomezulu didn’t just chase that ghost, he ran right past it, smiling, inviting it to keep up as he tore downfield toward a future that suddenly feels very brigh