New Boks star puts pressure on other fly-halves – Rassie

Rassie Erasmus says he has a tough call to make at fly-half after Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s breakthrough performances, while addressing concerns around Manie Libbok’s goal-kicking struggles.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu enjoyed an impressive second-half cameo in his first run at fly-half for the Springboks in the 10-try victory over Portugal in Bloemfontein.

The 22-year-old played a key role in two tries while he also continued his perfect record off the kicking tee in all four of his Test appearances, knocking over all five of his conversion attempts at the Toyota Stadium.

🤩 SACHA FEINBERG-MNGOMEZULU v Portugal.#RSAvPOR #Springboks pic.twitter.com/mY3UsRob9d

— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) July 21, 2024

This has been contrasted with the performance of DHL Stormers teammate Manie Libbok, who was among a host of Rugby World Cup winners who played their first Test of the year.

While Libbok was excellent in open play, pulling the strings against Portugal’s rush defence, his rollercoaster form when kicking at goal continued, as he missed three of his five conversion attempts.

“I’m not a kicking coach,” Erasmus answered when asked about Libbok’s struggles. “Tony [Brown] is trying to help him.

“Go chat to Naas Botha and he will tell you that he had a spell when his game dipped.

“So Manie is going through a dip but his general play is still good so it is a tough one to handle.

“Sacha comes on and he slots everything and he passes well and creates tries; so there is some proper pressure on all the 10s: Manie, Handre [Pollard], Gaza [Damian Willemse] and Sacha,” Erasmus added.

“There are some new guys in the team that can do the things but no I can’t fix his [Libbok’s] goal-kicking – he will have to.”

Erasmus will tomorrow name his squad for the opening leg of the Rugby Championship in Australia.