When Springbok attack coach Tony Brown said last week that he felt that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was perhaps taking on too much on his own as the game driver and occasional captain at the DHL Stormers it verbalised what many pundits would have been thinking.
Yet while Stormers coach John Dobson understands where Brown was coming from, and would be the first to agree with the former All Black flyhalf that Feinberg-Mngomezulu has been over-burdened by the expectations of both the rugby public and the players playing around him, he says he is a bit concerned about “the noise” that has been generated around a man who turned 24 just a few weeks ago.
“The noise around Sacha is a concern,” Dobson said in a media conference ahead of Saturday’s Vodacom URC north/south derby against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.
“He is a youngster and there is so much emotion in rugby. Sacha was being hero worshipped a few months back. It’s not what the respected journalists have to say, but these days anyone can say what they think and have their views published on social media and the stuff gets around.
“There are a lot of people commenting on him and fuelling the noise, and he would have to be an extremely tough human being for it not to affect him. He is youngster with a massive future and will be a great for South African rugby.”
Dobson, in saying that the Springbok environment might be an easier one for Feinberg-Mngomezulu to fit into, is actually singing from the same hymn sheet as Brown, who said at a Bok media day in Cape Town last week that Sacha had a specific role to fit into at the Boks and possibly better support from the quality players around him in the national squad.
VERY DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT AT THE BOKS
“We listen to what a guy like Tony says, but it is a very different environment at his club team, the Stormers, where he has been the captain and is desperate for us to win, to the environment at the national team where there are huge resources on and off the field and you have a massive pack of forwards who can bail you out and you have guys with hundreds of international caps around you.
“Tony is dead right in that Sacha is maybe trying to do too much, but we know where it is coming from. Sacha is just desperate for the Stormers to win. We would rather have that have somebody who is disinvested, or trying to look after his body. We just have to coach better to make sure he takes those right options.
“Sacha has always been fully committed as a player. We discovered that in the very first game he played for us which was a Toyota Challenge match against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein a few years ago. He made 22 tackles in that game which was a phenomenal amount for a player in his position.”
CONCERNED ABOUT THE 'VITRIOL'
The concerns around Feinberg-Mngomezulu that have been expressed by Brown and in the mainstream media are less Dobson’s concern than what he referred to as “the vitriol” of what he described as “keyboard warriors”.
“I just cannot understand how there can possibly be vitriol towards a guy who has such X factor and so much promise for the Stormers and the Springboks,” said Dobson.
“You don’t become the world’s best game-managing flyhalf in your first couple of years. It will come but he has to serve the hours. He will definitely get there.”
Perhaps that is the root of the problem - when Feinberg-Mngomezulu broke the Bok points scoring record against Argentina in Durban last year with his hat-trick of tries and 37 individual points in all, everyone was in a rush to label him the world’s best flyhalf and the next Dan Carter.
What was forgotten is that Feinberg-Mngomezulu hadn’t played that many games for the Stormers, and very few of those were at flyhalf as much of his early franchise rugby was played at inside centre, before he won his first cap for the Boks in 2024 and has only played 19 international matches.
RELIEVED OF CAPTAINCY BURDEN
In another story currently on supersport.com from the same press conference, Dobson admits he may have been wrong to burden Feinberg-Mngomezulu with the captaincy so soon.
The Stormers leadership role was thrust on him in three games before Dobson decided to release some of the pressure by appointing lock JD Shickerling as the captain for the recent match against the Lions as he recognises that Feinberg-Mngomezulu still has a lot of growing to do when it comes to game management.
Indeed, it is generally accepted that it takes 30 to 35 games for a flyhalf to settle into the role of accomplished game driver at the higher level and this may be something that critics overlook.
There’s no doubt that Feinberg-Mngomezulu is destined to be in the Carter bracket as a flyhalf, and he’s already in many respected people’s World XV’s (at the end of last year) but he’s not the finished article.
In relieving him of the additional burden of being the Stormers captain, Dobson correctly believes he will be aiding his growth and it looks like the correct call.