DHL Stormers director of rugby John Dobson has admitted that he may have thrust the burden of being team leader on Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu too soon but remains convinced that the flyhalf will go on to become a great club and International captain.
That the 24-year-old has leadership ability is beyond dispute and Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is understood to consider him a future national captain.
Having your main game driver and supposed match winner as the designated team leader is by no means unusual, and it will be recalled by those who were following rugby at the time that after serving his initial apprenticeship at provincial level under the leadership of the likes of Thys Lourens, Morne du Plessis and Wynand Claassen, the legendary Naas Botha captained both the Bulls (Northern Transvaal) and the Boks.
However, Naas didn’t do the job when he was still making his way into top rugby and building his experience, and that’s where Dobson admits maybe he got it wrong. He said he would not be “burdening” Feinberg-Mngomezulu with the leadership reins when the Stormers go to Loftus this week to play the Vodacom Bulls in Saturday’s big Vodacom URC derby.
The Bok flyhalf led the Stormers in three successive games - the Investec Champions Cup win against the Leicester Tigers and then the two URC derby losses to the Sharks - but Dobson opted to go with experienced lock JD Schickerling instead when the Stormers played the Lions in Johannesburg last time out.
“JD did okay in that game, he did what he could, he asked for a penalty try, we kept our penalty count down to seven, and he will be in the frame again this week depending on who else is in the team,” said Dobson.
“Look, I don’t think we will put the captaincy pressure back on Sacha because there was logic around that (change for the Lions game). If a Ruhan (Nel) or a Deon (Fourie) come into the selection frame to start against the Bulls we will take a look at that otherwise we will continue with JD. We haven’t selected the team yet, but we definitely won’t bounce it back to Sacha.”
FUTURE CAPTAINCY ROLE HAS BEEN DISCUSSED
What Dobson has no doubt about though is that Feinberg-Mngomezulu, like Botha was at the Bulls and the Boks all those years ago, will go on to become a good captain.
“He is very keen to captain and we have discussed that as being in his future and they may have done the same in the national team,” said Dobson.
“I will tell you where I just think this guy has something special. In that game against the Sharks in Durban you will remember we had a plan at the start, to isolate Andre (Esterhuizen) and go for the chop tackle and we scored off a quick tap penalty.
"Sacha was heavily invested in that plan, he wanted us to have a fast start. Most people would have been celebrating, shouting ‘yes, yes, yes’
“Or alternatively, as he was our place-kicker, you’d have been expecting him to be focusing on the 60 seconds he had to attempt the conversion. But he went straight to the referee and asked if there shouldn’t be a card as the Sharks hadn’t retreated.
"I think that showed remarkable sharp mindedness and cold bloodedness for the game, and also remarkable insight. The referee dismissed him but I think he was right.
“That he’s got captaincy ability is beyond doubt, but the mistake I made is I didn’t take into account the obvious overload of the expectation around him. He’s the obvious David Beckham of SA rugby now in terms of profile, he’s the X-factor guy, he’s our 10 and everyone’s 10 is always a game driver, our 10 calls the plays, and then to load the captaincy on what was then a 23-year-old was our mistake.
“So we had a chat with him and said “Sacha, you just focus on two of those things for now’, and he was really respectful (to that decision). I know he wants to captain, and was very accepting of the role, but in a couple of years time he will be an absolutely exceptional captain.
"It was our mistake there to put him under too much pressure. It also changed the character of the team a little bit because the responsibility is all on one guy and I didn’t empower those around him enough. It was more our fault than his fault.”
Both centre Nel and veteran Bok flanker Fourie are available for Saturday's game after returning from injury and if he is in the starting team the smart money should be on Nel to captain as he did an excellent job as leader when the Stormers started off the season in winning form. Fourie is more likely to play off the bench, with Paul de Villiers starting at No 6, in the Pretoria game.