Tony Brown’s simple message to Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to help him regain his best form
Springboks attack coach Tony Brown has a simple message for fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu who is struggling with his form at the moment.
The Stormers made an outstanding start to the 2025/26 United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign as they clinched eight successive victories and were sitting pretty atop the competition’s standings early in January after securing a narrow 13-8 victory over their arch-rivals the Bulls in Cape Town.
Lost twice to the Sharks
However, things have gone pear-shaped for John Dobson’s troops in the URC since then as they suffered successive defeats in Cape Town and Durban against the Sharks on back-to-back weekends in late January.
The URC then took a four-week break after the start of the Six Nations which many Stormers fans felt came at just the right time as it would give their side a chance to lick their wounds before they returned to action against the Lions.
However, things did not go according to plan in that fixture last weekend as the Lions cruised to a 24-10 triumph and after their three successive defeats, the Stormers have plummeted down the URC table as they are now occupying fifth position.
Central to the Stormers’ slump is the form of highly rated playmaker Feinberg-Mngomezulu which has not been good and against the Lions he looked a pale shadow of the player who shone for the Springboks during their end-of-year tour to Europe at the end of 2025.
The 24-year-old was named as the Stormers’ captain for an Investec Champions Cup clash against Leicester Tigers in Cape Town in mid-January.
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Relieved of the Stormers’ captaincy
After winning that encounter, he also skippered the team against the Sharks but after suffering those back-to-back defeats, he was relieved of the captaincy ahead of the Lions clash.
Experienced second-row JD Schickerling took over the leadership role as Feinberg-Mngomezulu was left to focus on his game but that decision did not work out as planned as he had little influence on proceedings in Johannesburg.
Former All Blacks fly-half Brown has worked with Feinberg-Mngomezulu at international level over the past two years and feels Feinberg-Mngomezulu is putting too much pressure on himself when he plays for his club.
“In the Springbok environment, the way we train, the way we play and the way we use every player to do his job, he fits in and it’s easy for him,” he said at a press conference in Cape Town on Monday.
“Sacha understands his role (in the Springbok set-up). He doesn’t have to do everything on his own. The Stormers are in a bit of a slump and he’s probably trying to do too much by himself.
“If I have to say something to him, it would be: use the players around you more, don’t always try to take everyone on yourself. Let the players around you help you.”
