The moment was truly breathtaking, and something of an announcement, confirming that a truly rare talent had arrived on the world stage.
In the 37th minute of South Africa’s Rugby Championship game against Argentina in Durban’s Kings Park last September, Damien Willemse fielded a clearance inside halfway adjacent to his left touchline and passed infield to Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
The young outhalf attempted a 50/22 into the opposite right corner and the kind of open territory which would have infuriated Pumas coach Felipe Contepomi, but the ball bounced and veered infield. So, Feinberg-Mngomezulu ate up the ground, pretty much overtaking the other 29 players on the pitch and making everyone else look like they were jogging on the spot.
Gesturing to the chasing Canan Moodie that he had this under control, Feinberg-Mngomezulu dived on to the ball, gathered it and slid over the line in one smooth movement.
RM Block
In his 15th cap for the Springboks, this was his first Test try and, after kicking the conversion off the upright (it was proving to be that kind of day), two more tries would follow. In first-half stoppage time, the Springboks were pounding the Pumas deep inside their 22 when scrumhalf Cobus Reinach passed to Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who stepped inside one defender and back outside another to dive over.
Early in the second half, the young outhalf kick-passed with precision for Cheslin Kolbe to gather on the run and score. Then, in the 51st minute, Feinberg-Mngomezulu stepped forward to the base of a ruck, dummied extravagantly, turned 360 degrees and beat three players to complete his hat-trick.
In all, he scored 37 points in South Africa’s 67-30 win, beating the Springboks’ individual record in a Test of 35 points scored by Percy Montgomery, and that was in a 105-13 win over Namibia at the 2007 World Cup.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu has long since been earmarked as a generational talent. Already something of a superstar at home, his double-barrelled surname is rapidly becoming a household name in the global game, and reflects his mixed Zulu and Jewish heritage. His father, Nick Feinberg, is a journalist and DJ who was born in London after his father, an anti-apartheid activist, was forced to flee South Africa, while his mother, Makhosazana Mngomezulu, is a lawyer.
He is very close to his brother Nathan, a 28-year-old reality TV personality, model and social media influencer. The brothers do not appear short of confidence.
They were schooled at Bishops Diocesan College, a prestigious private school in Cape Town known for producing many Springboks. The younger Feinberg-Mngomezulu began playing mini rugby at the age of five, while he also played football and cricket.
In an interview with South African journalists in the build-up to that 37-point haul against the Springboks, he said: “I enjoyed cricket. I played until grade 10 when I kind of just wanted to take rugby more seriously. I felt like I was losing weight in the cricket field and I could be doing more conditioning and things like that with the rugby.”
He described himself as something of a hybrid seam/spin bowler.
“I just used to enjoy fielding. That’s where I got all my energy from. I used to love fielding in the covers and at point, just being active and a bit messy on the floor and diving for balls and stopping runs. Yeah, I used to enjoy fielding.”
In his various underage rugby teams, he has always assumed leadership, captaining the school’s first XV, and he was signed by the Western Province squad for the 2021 Currie Cup, at just 19 years old.
The following year Feinberg-Mngomezulu broke into the Stormers squad, scoring three tries in his 11 appearances, eight of which were off the bench, and was soon causing a stir when establishing himself as their first-choice outhalf for much of the last two seasons.
Described as akin to a running back in American Football by James O’Connor recently, Feinberg-Mngomezulu has blistering pace, strength, fiendish footwork, X-factor passing and offloading, and a wide range of kicks from hand as well as from long range off the tee.
Soon he was supposedly attracting the interest of Eddie Jones when he was England head coach back in 2022. “I’ve got a British passport ... I had the opportunity to go abroad straight after school, from several clubs,” said Feinberg-Mngomezulu in October 2022.
“That would have meant me going into the England under-20 set-up, which is what I didn’t want and I think something like a British passport can be a threat to the rugby industry at the moment.
“We know there is more money overseas, but I’m fully focused on South Africa. Playing for the Junior Springboks was that much more special because, when I said no to the overseas interest, one of my primary reasons was because I wanted to play for the Junior Boks.”
He’s a cool cat, is Feinberg-Mngomezulu. He speaks glowingly of his rival outhalves in the Springboks squad, Handré Pollard and Manie Libbok, and he seems to have remained humble. He has thanked the “big dogs” who have eased his transition into the Springboks.
[ Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu lights up South Africa’s rout of Japan at WembleyOpens in new window ]
“I think even in this environment I’m just becoming myself more so. I’m quite a chilled guy to be honest with you. I do try to take my work seriously but in the public eye obviously you’re a Springbok and there’s a certain way you have to carry yourself and carry the badge and I don’t ever take that for granted.
“But at home, I’m a 23-year-old guy. I said it before, I’m just Sacha at home. My mates take the mick out of me, my girlfriend takes the mick out of me and I’m just normal.
“But here when we’re at work and on a Saturday when we have to perform for all our supporters, of course you have to tap into a different sort of mentality.”
Inevitably, there have been teething problems. Having made his debut off the bench at home to Wales in June last year, Feinberg-Mngomezulu incurred the displeasure of Rassie Erasmus in the 2024 Rugby Championship by starting and finishing the two wins over the All Blacks despite playing with a knee injury.
“That’s what our players must understand; we have respect for everybody, but we must be honest when it comes to injuries,” Erasmus said.
“Nobody who’s got an injury and 80 per cent ready is better than a Springbok who has no injuries and is 100 per cent ready. So, Sacha is lucky that we won those Test matches because he gambled a bit.”
Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed the remainder of that Rugby Championship and the Boks’ end-of-year tour after undergoing an operation on his injured knee. But this year, having juggled his outhalves since the last World Cup, Erasmus had decided to invest more heavily in the 23-year-old.
Saturday’s game will be Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s fifth start in the Boks’ last six Tests.
While Erasmus said Pollard was ruled out of this game with an Achilles injury, they probably would have started Feinberg-Mngomezulu again, with Libbok on the bench.
“Handré understands that at 31 – I mean Johnny [Sexton] played until he was 38 – he’s got another World Cup in him. I think he understands that we want to learn lessons from Sacha. Playing in France, under pressure, that is a different thing, and playing on Saturday with Zombie playing, that bit of pressure that comes with that,” said Erasmus when looking ahead to this game.
Erasmus added that Reinach and Feinberg-Mngomezulu are the Stormers halves, and their “nice security on the bench” with Grant Williams and Libbok.
“I don’t know if you have a word in English called the ‘snotklap’,” said Erasmus, using the Afrikaans slang word. “But he can get a ‘snotklap’, which is like a slap in the face somewhere and makes you think ‘oh, this is a different level’. And that is going to happen at some point to him. Then he must handle that, and we must still try to get him through all the different stages of intensity.”
In the Stade de France, Erasmus and co wanted to see if Feinberg-Mngomezulu could place kick from long range under pressure, and he did land two penalties from almost halfway early on. But it was a decidedly mixed performance, with some overcooked bombs out of hand before being moved to fullback, where he is equally adept and from where he arced around Romain Ntamack for the final try which sealed a 32-17 win.
Erasmus has seen growth but clearly wants more from his young prodigy.
“In the beginning, [he was] very confident but he struggled to express himself without thinking he is buggering up the game plan, and then starting to understand. But listen, there is a place for your skills in the game plan and then starting to really talk and ask a lot of questions, and then he’s demanding a little bit more from the guys because the 10 is pretty much running the back line, and the plays and stuff.
“He has always had the talent on the field, but I think he is growing in feeling comfortable, but I know it will be very uncomfortable in this cauldron on Saturday,” said Erasmus, chuckling wryly at the prospect, as if almost willing it to be so.
As with Sam Prendergast, so the investment in Feinberg-Mngomezulu continues.
