NEXT 12 MONTHS COULD SEE SIGNIFICANT GROWTH
There was an interesting conversation featuring former All Black wing Jeff Wilson and the former Sharks scrumhalf and coach, plus Springbok, Kevin Putt, on the New Zealand television rugby magazine program, The Breakdown, last weekend.
Putt, of course, is a Kiwi himself and living back there, but clearly still follows South African rugby closely, and he differed with Wilson’s view, which reminded me a lot of what we used to say about the All Blacks a decade or so ago when they were so dominant, that the Boks were close to their ceiling. In other words, they couldn’t get much better than they are right now.
What Wilson was questioning was the validity of using the depth in the South African game currently, and that seems to be undisputed, as an indicator that the Boks could improve and become even more dominant than they already are. What he said is perfectly logical and understandable - having the second-best inside centre in the world in Andre Esterhuizen isn’t really relevant if, for argument's sake, you have the best in Damian de Allende starting.
In other words the are only so many places to be filled in a starting team and in a matchday 23. Putt’s view, also correct, is that what makes South Africa strong is the ability of the Bok coach to replace top quality with top quality when first-choice players are injured. I think there was a bit of an impasse in the debate because they were tackling the question from different angles.
Here’s my take: The Boks could well be much better than they are right now when they get to next year’s World Cup in Australia, even if they don’t deviate much or at all from the side that won the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series 3-1. And there’s one reason for that optimism - Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
This time last year, Sacha had people waxing lyrical about his abilities, about his prowess as a No 10. After his hat-trick of tries and points-scoring record against the Pumas in a Castle Lager Rugby Championship game in Durban, some were even taking the leap of equating him to the former All Black superstar Dan Carter.
SUPREMELY GIFTED
There is no denying Sacha has the ability to be that good, if not better. He is supremely gifted and sublimely talented. But sometimes you get the impression he is too talented for his own good and earlier in the year I compared him to the outrageously talented young batsman Dewald Brevis, who sometimes gives the impression he thinks every ball can be hit for six. Because he probably can.
In a rugby sense, Sacha can probably hit every ball for six too, but like Brevis back at that time, he had a few things to learn about game management. Feinberg-Mngomezulu arguably hasn’t progressed as far in the 12 months since that Durban test - it was in fact exactly a year ago - as we thought he might. Both at the Stormers and at the Boks, he has produced performances that have been well beneath his capabilities.
There have been reasons for that. At the Stormers he might have found himself caught up in an outlook that the team depended heavily on him if they were going to win, and thus tried to do too much on his own. At the Boks, we mustn’t forget that he was out of the game injured for three months before being rushed back into action shortly before the start of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series.
When more mortal players would have been easing their way back, Sacha was fronting the challenge against the second-best team in the world. That Rassie Erasmus selected him to do that showed the confidence he has in the player, and while Handre Pollard will get some much-needed game time this weekend in Perth, there is no doubt that Feinberg-Mngomezulu is the first choice and the man who will be banked on in the Boks’ quest for a three-peat next year.
Should he progress on the upward performance trajectory he is capable of, and become a better decision-maker and game manager than he is now, how much better will the Boks be in 12 months' time? I would say they could be significantly better. The Bok ceiling is Sacha’s ceiling. When Sacha fulfils his potential, and he will, the Boks are going to be more clinical in converting their obvious physical dominance into points. So no, the Boks are a long way from their ceiling.
URC SHOULD PROVIDE KICK START FOR NEXT RWC CYCLE
There is a lot of focus on the Perth test match between the Springboks and Australia on Sunday but before that we will have the first full round of this season’s Vodacom URC. It’s a bit unfortunate there is a clash, and I don’t think there’s any other rugby country in the world that would schedule a test match for the same weekend as their main club/franchise competition starts.
And yet, while that is a negative, there’s also a positive to it - it means that the local teams are having to test their depth early and also give opportunities to younger players that they might not otherwise have had were the top players available to play. It’s a long season, with the URC being a marathon rather than a sprint, and all the four local squads include players who can use this season as a stepping stone to big international players in the next World Cup cycle.
Haashim Pead grabbed the headlines this week by switching allegiance from the 10Bet Lions to the DHL Stormers but, judging from the performances at the 2025 Junior World Championship that earned him the World Rugby Junior Player of the Year award, he could soon be grabbing headlines for his performances if he gets his opportunity.
The prospect of Pead teaming up with Feinberg-Mngomezulu in those games that Cobus Reinach is not available is an exciting one, and then there’s also Yaqeen Ahmed, the youngster who made such a promising debut for the Stormers against the All Blacks and is also a supremely talented flyhalf. He is on the bench for the Stormers when they open their URC campaign against Connacht in Galway on Friday night.
Imad Khan is also a talented scrumhalf and is just 22 compared to Pead’s 21, and the pair of them are likely to be dovetailing between starting and finishing roles at the Stormers for many years to come, and don’t bet against that also becoming the scenario at Bok level in the next RWC cycle.
Markus Muller isn’t involved in the Galway game, but the 19-year-old showed a lot of composure in his first senior season playing in the Currie Cup and was also good at the World Junior Championship. I hear he has impressed the Stormers coaches and is not far away from challenging to become the established inside centre, even though he played most of the Currie Cup at 13.
The Sharks have Luan Giliomee lining up at fullback against the Ospreys. Again, here is a sublimely talented player and someone who can definitely challenge to be part of the Bok mix after 2027. He heads to the Bulls later in the season, where coming under the influence of Willie le Roux could prove helpful.
Jurenzo Julius feels like he’s been around forever but is also in his early 20s and gets his chance against the Ospreys to remind us what he can do before the return of the two Boks Andre Esterhuizen and Ethan Hooker (Hooker plays wing for the Boks, but with Edwill van der Merwe and Makazole Mapimpi plus Jaco Williams on the Sharks’ books, he may find himself playing more often in the midfield at URC level).
And I haven’t even mentioned Vusi Moyo, who is only just into his third decade of life but has already been capped at flyhalf for the Boks. It is going to be a big season for him and if he remains the starting flyhalf at the Sharks, it is going to be interesting to watch his growth. Ditto Zikethelo Siyaya, who is on the bench on Saturday.
Actually, if I mention every player with massive talent, I could write a book about it, so I will stop now, but suffice it to say that Siba Mahashe of the Lions is a raw but soon-to-be burgeoning talent at the Lions, and Batho Hlekani, another hero of the 2025 Junior World Championship win, is another. The Bulls have a freakishly talented wing in Cheswill Jooste.
Everywhere you look, there are players either in their teens or early twenties looking to use this URC to kick start their propulsion to international level, and if you really want to talk about the Bok ceiling, maybe you should do a study of what is coming through in SA rugby right now.
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE AUSSIE TEST MATCHES
This weekend provides those of us who enjoy following both cricket and rugby with one of those rare double-header opportunities. When the Boks play the Wallabies on Sunday, the Wanderers will be hosting the annual Pink Day, with the Australians also down as the opponents as the Proteas go out to sew up the series after their good win at Kingsmead on Heritage Day.
As a pipe-opener to what is going to be a very full international cricketing summer, the Kingsmead ODI was perfect, with Marco Jansen’s batting alongside the gifted Matthew Breetzke eventually being upstaged by what can only be described as a startlingly sublime outfield catch. Make a point of watching it on replay if you haven’t seen it already.
There’s a Cricket World Cup scheduled for here this time next year, where bizarrely it will clash with the Rugby World Cup in Australia, so there’s some importance being attached to the ODI format for a change. I much prefer the 50-over game to T20 for what would be an obvious reason to anyone who knows that my most preferred format is the five-day test.
That is something we should really all be looking forward to - the three-match series (it should really be at least four like it was the last time the Aussies were here for what will be remembered as the Sandpapergate series) starts on 9 October in Durban, and I hope the weather holds. From my memories of living in Durban and playing cricket as a schoolboy in that city, the weather often proved a frustration.
All three games are being played on the coast, and I have tickets for the first four days of the final test in Cape Town that starts on 27 October. That day is a Tuesday, with what should be the entire game being played during the week - the fifth day is scheduled for Saturday, but it is unlikely to go five days. The last time the Aussies played at Newlands at this time of the year (early November 2011), the Proteas were bowled out for 96 in their first knock and then bowled out the Aussies for 47 (they were 21 for nine), and it was all over by lunch on day three.
The reason I mention the coast is that, as Shaun Pollock reminded me in a very interesting show with Pommie Mbangwa that featured a chat with a group of Proteas bowling legends - Polly, Alan Donald, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Makhaya Ntini and Paul Adams - those pitches can be very juicy at this early stage of the season.
However, having watched the spinners excel in the first ODI at Kingsmead, surely there must be at least some thought given to the Proteas going into that match with both Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer featuring in the attack?
If you are talking international spin duos, that pair is hard to beat, and given that England these days don’t have a recognised spinner, they could definitely feature again in the New Year test at Newlands. The other two games are at the Wanderers and Centurion and you can go all pace at both those venues. Although with England being tied to a four-pronged seam attack, the SA spinners could be the point of difference between the teams.