The DHL Stormers have pulled off a major coup with the signing of the prodigiously talented Sacha Feinberg-Mnbomezulu until at least 2027.
The Junior Springbok star is injured at the moment and hasn’t played much this season but when he has, such as when he was the star of the show in the good away win over the Hollywoodbets Sharks in Durban in February, he has shown his undeniable class. Just like the coaches at the time used to speak of a young Damian Willemse as the future, so coach John Dobson does the same with the 22-year old Mngomezulu, who made his debut as a replacement at the age of just 20 in the 2021/22 Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against Edinburgh.
In that game he showed his versatility as he slotted in at centre when Rikus Pretorius was injured, a position at that point that he had not played before, and it was as a No 12 he excelled alongside another promising Stormers youngster, flyhalf Jurie Matthee, in the aforementioned game against the Sharks.
However, it is a flyhalf that he has played most of his career, and is seen as a probable future Springbok flyhalf, with his utility value just being a great bonus for the franchise that has secured his services until the end of this World Cup cycle.
“Sacha has been earmarked as a generational talent since he was a schoolboy and it has been great to see him break through into the senior ranks in the last three seasons,” said Stormers director of rugby Dobson.
“Now that his future here has been confirmed we are looking forward to seeing him develop further and fulfil the potential everyone who has seen him play knows he has. He has the ability to be a world class flyhalf and we want to equip him with everything he needs to do just that.
“Our intention is to retain the top talent we have here before looking elsewhere and this is the first of a few announcements that we will make to show how serious we are about continuing this project and keeping the bulk of our squad together until at least 2027.”
In the past few weeks the Stormers have announced the return of two former stalwarts in Springbok prop Steven Kitshoff and the influential lock JD Schickerling. Given how good and the status he could achieve in the next few years, with Victor Matfield this week predicting he will be the Bok flyhalf at the next World Cup, the retention of Feinberg-Mngomezulu is as big a coup for the Stormers as the retention of those two players.
It means the Stormers have incredible depth at flyhalf going forward, with Manie Libbok also set to be around until 2027, Matthee having signed for another two seasons, and lets not forget that Damian Willemse has played for the Boks in the No 10.