‘He is the next Springbok flyhalf’ – South Africa legend picks Handre Pollard successor

 South African great Victor Matfield has earmarked Stormers starlet Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu as the next Springboks fly-half.

The former Junior Springboks skipper has already made over 20 appearances for the Stormers since making his debut only minutes into a quarter-final against Edinburgh in the inaugural United Rugby Championship.

He would go on to lead the Baby Boks to a very successful U20 Summer Series that year and it would not be long until he was brought into the Springbok set-up for the end-of-year tour in 2022. The playmaker would start in a losing effort for South Africa ‘A’ against Munster leaving the field with an injury during the game.

Need chances at flyhalf

Feinburg-Mngomezulu, despite playing all of his youth career at fly-half, has primarily been deployed as a first In order to make room for Manie Libbok’s genius, the youthful player has taken up kicking duties at the Stormers’ center.

The 22-year-old was part of the Springboks’ first alignment camp despite being unable to play in many games this season due to a number of bothersome injuries.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu has a bright future as a Springbok fly-half, according to Matfield, who cites the star’s excellent goalkicking as one of his main advantages.

“I’m a big fan of Sacha,” Matfield said in response to the online roundtable discussion for the United Rugby Championship. “He is the next Springbok flyhalf, in my opinion. Instead of only starting him at inside center, I would like to see the Stormers give him a little more of an opportunity at flyhalf.

“He is a bit bigger than Manie. I think he can attack the advantage line and kicks well. As a schoolboy, his kicking at the posts was superb. I would like to see the Stormers ask him to take over their goalkicking job.

“Sacha was excellent at U20 level. At junior level, he was in a different class, but at senior level, I haven’t seen much of him in the No 10 jersey.”

Star potential

There is no doubting the potential of the Stormer with John Dobson once describing him as a copy of Damian Willemse.

To be honest, this is one of the dirtiest rugby match finishes I have ever witnessed. Give a bow, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.tweet.com/uzf7xensM8

— October 21, 2023, EK Rugby Analysis (@ek_rugby)

Although Matfield is adamant that he enjoys Libbok’s style of play, he is worried about the fly-half stepping up after his poor goal-kicking performance during the Rugby World Cup led to Handre Pollard being named in the starting lineup.

The centurion from Springbok believes Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s moment has come.

“Manie has a lot of good qualities, and I really like him, but there’s a lot of discussion about whether he can step up,” Matfield remarked. He’s had a couple opportunities.

“Manie is fantastic. However, I hope Sacha is given additional chances.