England’s Fin Smith played himself into the frame to start for the British & Irish Lions with his match-winning performance for Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup semifinal but he is not in the same league as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Neither is the man Smith shaded in a Dublin match that produced one of the biggest upsets in the history of the elite European competition.
Leinster’s Sam Prendergast is at the age of 22 Ireland’s first choice pivot and the man groomed to follow Jonny Sexton as a match-winner. Smith is also 22 and there are similar expectations of him in England.
That is not to say Smith and Prendergast won’t go on to become great international players. It is just that they don’t quite match the uniquely special level that Feinberg-Mngomezulu appears to be at when it comes to talent and potential and which he’s showcased in sensational fashion recently for the Stormers.
He does have a bit to learn about game management, but his obvious ability marks him as a player that in a previous era might have prompted calls for the Springboks to build the team around him.
Only this isn’t the 1980s, when what was then Northern Transvaal built so much of their game around the kicking skills of Naas Botha. To the point that in the years he was trying his luck with the Dallas Cowboys, Northerns just didn’t shape.
Perhaps England, where the rugby media seems to be constantly preoccupied with the debate over the merits of the two Smiths, the other being Marcus, is still caught in the time-warp. And Ireland, coming out of a time when they relied so much on Sexton, is too.
But in SA the idea you can give a particular flyhalf the keys to the kingdom and he will win you everything is becoming outdated, with Bok coach Rassie Erasmus correctly surmising that you don’t need just one clearly identifiable kingpin, no matter how good that player may be. You need a few.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu could bring an exciting dimension to the world champions for he is so many things rolled into one, but experience would have taught Erasmus you cannot rely on just one flyhalf.
In the period from the 1970s through to the early 1990s, when Naas was strutting his stuff, the concept of rotation in selection had yet to be invented.
That was partly because the schedules weren’t as congested and seasons weren’t as long as now, and also there appeared to be fewer injuries. Wynand Claassen’s Natal team of 1980 went through an entire Currie Cup season without a solitary change to the starting team.
There was one season where Naas must have been injured as I can recall Johan Heunis, normally a fullback, playing flyhalf for the Bulls for much of their 1989 campaign. But Naas missing games was a rare thing.
Not so the modern flyhalves. Feinberg-Mngomezulu has only just come back from an injury layoff, his fellow Bok flyhalf at the Stormers, Manie Libbok, is currently sidelined, and let’s not forget the Boks started the last World Cup without Handrè Pollard.
He did return to play a key role in the decisive games of the tournament, but before that the Boks were fortunate Libbok had been blooded at international level while Pollard was previously injured.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu could bring an exciting dimension to the world champions for he is so many things rolled into one, but experience would have taught Erasmus you cannot rely on just one flyhalf. Last season he spread the opportunities mostly between three different flyhalves, though there was a fourth in Jordan Hendrikse.
With Feinberg-Mngomezulu playing the Joburg game against the All Blacks and Pollard wearing the No 10 in Cape Town, and then Libbok fronting in the Rugby Championship decider against Argentina, there was no clearly defined first choice in 2024.
And while Feinberg-Mngomezulu should clearly be involved in most of the Bok games, as he needs to build experience, it would be folly to make the No 10 his and his alone.
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