A Springbok press conference isn’t normally a place where you expect to see some clarity shed on a franchise team’s plight, but that was the case when attack coach Tony Brown was asked what he thought of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s error ridden form.
Brown, himself a former international flyhalf, will reunite with the 23-year-old Feinberg-Mngomezulu on Tuesday at the start of a four day national alignment camp in Cape Town. Brown hinted that after watching Feinberg-Mngomezulu take too much on himself in his pursuit of the Stormers’ cause, some TLC might be needed for the man many rate as the world’s best No 10.
“I’ll give Sacha a cuddle and he’ll be OK,” quipped Brown at Monday’s media briefing at the SARU headquarters in Plattekloof.
But he did not deny that Feinberg-Mngomezulu may be struggling at the moment, perhaps over-burdened by being the star player in a team that, after a strong start to the season, is stalling quite badly, as evidenced by a third successive URC defeat without even so much as a bonus point to show for their efforts against the Lions in Johannesburg last weekend.
“DON’T ALWAYS TRY AND TAKE ON EVERYONE YOURSELF”
As always Feinberg-Mngomezulu produced some sublime moments in the Ellis Park game, and Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen spoke afterwards about how hard his team had worked on their plan to ensure the 19 cap Bok flyhalf didn’t get a chance to dazzle. The hosts pretty much did that by forcing the Stormers into an error-rate that prevented them from getting any momentum, and as has been the case, Feinberg-Mngomezulu made some poor decisions like trying to play from his own half when it wasn’t on to do so.
The problem is one that for Brown is clear to see - Feinberg-Mngomezulu is expecting too much of himself, and maybe the team is expecting too much of him too.
“In the Springbok environment, the way we train, the way we play and the way we use every player to do his job, he fits in and it’s easy for him,” said the Bok attack coach and former All Black flyhalf.
“Sacha understands his role (in the Springbok set-up). He doesn’t have to do everything on his own. The Stormers are in a bit of a slump and he’s probably trying to do too much by himself. If I have to say something to him, it would be: use the players around you more, don’t always try to take everyone on yourself. Let the players around you help you.”
MATTHEE HAS BEEN AT FLYHALF FOR THE BIG WINS
Brown is onto something in both directions if you consider that in some of the Stormers' best performances of the season so far, such as the away wins against Munster and Benetton, have come with Jurie Matthee at flyhalf.
Matthee is a solid player and there is a reason the Stormers have extended his contract until 2029, but he is not a player who is expected by those around him to be a wizard, in the way that Sacha is. Matthee also knows he's not Feinberg-Mngomezulu and doesn't expect himself to win a game by himself, although has been a man of the match on several occasions.
The coup of extending Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s contract until 2029 in the face of the interest shown by some well heeled suitors was the positive narrative with which the Stormers ended off 2025. It was the reason people in the Cape started to talk about their team challenging for trophies, and not just the URC but the biggest one of all, the Investec Champions Cup.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu is undeniably a player you can build your team around, much like the Bulls/Northern Transvaal did around Naas Botha for many years and with many trophies resulting from Botha’s genius.
But it would have been folly to think the expectation should be that it happens right away and that success would be immediate. There is a lot of ambition at the Stormers franchise, and reason to be optimistic. But that hope is not built around the here and now and rather around what the future may hold given the long term planning being done by director of rugby John Dobson.
If you can look beyond the problems made evident in the last few games, there is reason to feel the future of the Stormers is bright. Remember that apart from Wilco Louw, the Bok tighthead currently with the Bulls, they will be joined by another experienced Bok in double World Cup winner Siya Kolisi next season.
INITIAL PART OF SEASON EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS
Couple those signings with the growth potential of players who are currently just starting out, or even in some cases have yet to play for the Stormers (Markus Muller), and there’s reason to feel the Stormers will thrive going forward. When they reached the end of 2025 not having lost yet in either URC or in the Champions Cup, and at the top of the log in both, they had exceeded expectations. But before they came a horrible cropper against Harlequins in London in their third Champions Cup game, the expectation was starting to grow that this may even be their year - at least in the URC, where they were at that point comfortably on top of the log with a game in hand on their nearest challengers.
Many would say they saw warning lights flickering before the trip to the Twickenham Stoop, but the reality is that, even though the Stormers were under-strength in that game, the 60 pointer and the ease with which the hosts ran through the visitors had to be a massive confidence blow for the Cape team.
CAPTAINCY CHANGE MADE TO FREE SACHA UP
And they’ve never really recovered if you look at their subsequent games - they had to work hard to get the better of Leicester Tigers in their final Champions Cup pool game in Cape Town before going on to be shocked by the Sharks at home when they returned to the URC the following weekend. Then came a loss in Durban and another in Johannesburg.
For the Johannesburg game, which they lost 24-10, the Stormers did what many would have been hoping for - they unburdened Feinberg-Mngomezulu from the captaincy role he had fulfilled in the previous three games, and gave the leadership reins to lock JD Schickerling.
“One of the reasons (we changed the captaincy) was to free Sacha up a bit. It definitely takes away a bit of the pressure on Sacha,” said forwards coach Rito Hlungwani on the eve of the Lions game.
“We’ve also got a very strong leadership group and from time to time we rotate the captaincy. Ruhan Nel has captained, Neethling Fouché has captained, Sacha has done it for two games now. It shows trust in the rest of the leadership group. The weight of leading this team is never just on the captain alone.”
RUHAN NEL IS THE MISSING LINK
No it isn’t but if you are looking for a paper trail to establish a reason why the Stormers are now in a rut that wouldn’t have been foreseen when they won five overseas games in a row across both the URC and the Champions Cup, the name that jumps out at you from the above is that of outside centre Nel.
Apart from being the organiser of a defensive system that was by far the best in the competition across the first eight games of the URC season, Nel was also at the helm when the Stormers won their big games overseas. He was a captain that Dobson to some extent had stumbled upon, but he was delighted to have done so.
Nel has been the name missing throughout the Stormers’ slump, and even from before that, from when it first started appearing the Stormers had become a bit too loose in December. We were told he was back in training and available for the Lions game but he did not play, but if he is match ready for the Stormers’ next game against the Bulls at Loftus on 14 March, it might make a massive difference to the Stormers’ chance of winning against a team they invariably punch above their weight against.