While agreeing that Sacha Feinberg-Mgomezulu was ‘brilliant’ against Argentina in the Rugby Championship on Saturday, Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus was quick to point out that the youngster had a lot of help on the pitch.
The Boks beat Los Pumas 67-30 in Durban, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu scoring 37 points, including three tries, to record a new single-game scoring record for South Africa.
But his coach was not willing to heap praise on the 23-year-old alone, and made sure to add some humble pie to the mix by saying the flyhalf made plenty of mistakes throughout the tournament campaign.
Erasmus said: “Nobody can disagree that he was brilliant on the day.
“What we always say is that you can’t put someone in there and immediately expect them to be world class. It doesn’t just happen overnight.
“He has grown a little bit against New Zealand, and a little bit against Australia away, and I think he only has 11 caps – or something like that – but I thought Damian de Allende helped him a lot and Damian Willemse played well and Manie came on played well and there were a lot of guys that played well, but no-one can disagree that Sacha was man of the match and did incredible things on the field.
“But in the lead up to where he was today there were many mishaps and bad kicking in other games he played. Sometimes you must give guys a chance to build reputation and their skillset at Test match level and he is definitely doing that; but there’s helluva a lot of people helping him; Manie and Damian, Tony (Brown, assistant coach), Handre (Pollard), everybody.”
Team captain Siya Kolisi was more willing to be the good cop and praise Feinberg-Mgomezulu’s mesmerising performance.
He said: “Sacha was amazing – not just in the way he scored tries but in the way he controlled the game.
“The guys around him helped him make decisions but when we click as a team every single player in the team can show who they are. That’s what the coaches always speak to us about.
“They pick us for certain reasons – we all have a point of difference – and one of Sacha’s is running with the ball. But other players have to do their jobs to put him in the position to do what he does.
“He was really amazing today. He took charge and took leadership which is what we wanted him to do. Hopefully he can continue next week.”
The Boks lead the Rugby Championship standings by one point, ahead of New Zealand, going into the final fixture at Twickenham in London on Saturday. A win will see the Boks retain their title.
