Stormers suffer Feinberg-Mngomezulu blow in Sharks loss

The Stormers may have lost exciting utility back Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for their two Champions Cup fixtures against French giants Toulon and English side Harlequins over the coming weeks.

Springbok bolter Feinberg-Mngomezulu, whose top start to his international career saw him nominated for World Rugby’s Player of the Year award, was making his return to the Stormers fold from injury in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash against the Sharks over the weekend, but may have suffered a new setback.

He looked fit and sharp in the first half, sparking a number of attacks, kicking well and slotting a snap drop goal, but in the 27^th minute went heavily into contact and looked dazed as he was led off with concussion to cut short his comeback.

There are various return to play protocols for concussion, so there is a tiny possibility he could be cleared for the Toulon game in Gqeberha on Saturday, but it is more than likely that he will be ruled out for that match.

Also depending on the severity of it he could miss out on the Harlequins game as well as the Stormers will have to fly off for England, either on Sunday or early the following week for their away match.

Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson admitted it was a heavy collision and played a part in disrupting the team over the rest of the game as they went down 21-15 to the hosts.

Helluva blow

“It was a helluva blow. I still want to go find out a bit more about it, but we’ve prepped all these plays for three weeks and then he goes off and then we actually messed up three starting plays,” explained Dobson after the game.

“It was a blow (to the team) and then once you lose the six-two (on the bench) … we ended up with (scrumhalf) Herschel (Jantjies) on the wing for 10 or 12 minutes and he almost scores the winner. Sacha was a big disruption for us. He is concussed.”

Dobson was also left frustrated by the number of chances the Stormers blew in the match.

“We created so many try-scoring opportunities. I think the Sharks also probably bottled one or two. But we were wasteful. I can name six (chances) off the top of my head and that was probably the difference,” said Dobson.

“We will look back and think we won the game right at the end there (when a Manie Libbok try was chalked off after an earlier knock-on by the same player), but three minutes before that we lost it because of the errors we made up until that point.

“I thought we were imperious in the second half. At 65 minutes, I thought we’ve got this completely under control. What happened at the end there (almost winning) was a bonus if truth be told.”