Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu now holds the individual record for points from a single player in a match for the Springboks, passing Percy Montgomery.
If he hadn’t done so already, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu firmly announced himself as one of the best rising talents in world rugby with a record breaking performance helping the Springboks humble Argentina 67-30 in Durban on Saturday night.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu set a new Bok individual points scoring record in a game, amassing an incredible 37 points over the match, that ended with his team clinching a bonus point win to go top of the Rugby Championship log with one match left to play.
He passed the previous record of 35, held by Boks record point scorer Percy Montgomery, who achieved the feat during a 105-13 win over Namibia at Newlands in Cape Town back in 2007.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s strike rate was particularly impressive, scoring over half of his team’s points, but wasn’t as amazing as Jannie de Beer’s 34 points during the Boks’ 44-21 win over England at the 1999 World Cup in France.
It was basically a complete performance from the budding young flyhalf, as he scored a scintillating hat trick of tries, nailed eight out of nine conversions, popped over two penalties, and produced a cross kick try assist for Cheslin Kolbe.
He was superb in all facets of play, tackling well, while he made 187 running metres and made 15 kicks out of hand, most of which were very contestable.
Statement performance
In all, it was a statement performance from Feinberg-Mngomezulu and one that could see him inch ahead of Handré Pollard and Manie Libbok, who have all been superb for the Boks this year, in the flyhalf pecking order.
Speaking after picking up a very worthy man-of-the-match award, he said it was the perfect way to finish their home international season, and that all their hard work in training had paid off.
“That was a nice way to finish off our last game at home (this year). It was an absolute vibe. In the 76th minute when there was a break (for an injury to Argentina’s Gonzalo Garcia), we were all able to take it in. So I am very happy,” said Feinberg-Mngomezulu in a field-side interview.
“We just wanted to play good rugby. The way we’ve been training we kind of wanted to emulate that in the game. Playing transitional scenarios, attacking them when we get the transition, and I think we did well to keep the balance between kicking and running. So that was a good score for the boys.”
He was also asked about his third try, which saw him pick up the ball at the base of a ruck, throw a huge dummy, pull a 360 spin move and dive over the line to score: “I knocked it on last time (that he tried to score like that), so I wanted to do it this time,” he said with a laugh.
