Sacha shines as Springboks triumph

The Springboks have cruised to the top of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship log after beating Argentina 67-30 at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday evening.

A stellar performance from the home side, led by fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who scored 37 points, saw the South Africans dot down nine tries against the Pumas.

New Zealand took on Australia at home earlier in the day, with the All Backs moving up to first place after beating the visitors 33-24.

Following the fourth gameweek, Australia led the pack at 11 points, with South Africa and New Zealand tied at 10 each and Argentina trailing at 9. 

This meant that all teams had everything to play for. A win for Argentina could have seen them place as high as second after New Zealand beat Australia.

In the opening thirty minutes, both sides only scored through penalty goals, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu converting in the fourth minute, followed by Santiago Carreras in the eighth and fourteenth.

South Africa’s number ten added another three five minutes later, before Carreras again increased his team’s lead to three by scoring another in the 25th minute.

The Springboks scored the game’s first try when Malcolm Marx went over in the 30th minute after a lineout maul. Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed the conversion, keeping the score at 11-9.

However, the visitors took the lead moments later after a major blunder by Cheslin Kolbe, who caught a kick by Carreras behind his own goal line, dotting it down to give his team a goal-line dropout.

A mindless dropkick towards the posts to give the ball to a teammate, which drifted over the goal line, was collected by Santiago Chocobares, who dove over the line after realising Kolbe’s kick counted as a goal-line dropout.

The try was awarded and converted, and the Argentinians took the lead with four minutes left in the half.

However, this was far from the end of the first-half’s action.

Minutes later, Feinberg-Mngomezulu directed a kick over the Argentinian defensive line from inside his own half, which Canan Moodie looked quick enough to collect, but the fly-half was there first to snatch it up and score – his first try in Green and Gold, which he converted. South Africa 18 Argentina 16.

The Argentinians hit back moments later, with the referee awarding them a penalty try after Malcolm Marx was shown a yellow for illegally dragging down the maul. This gave the visitors the lead once again.

It looked as though the Pumas might have gone into the dressing room with the upper hand. However, with minutes to play, South Africa fought hard for a half-time advantage and was soon rewarded.

The Springboks won the ball back after the kickoff, and Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s quick feet saw him dive over the line five minutes after the half-time siren.

The first forty minutes ended with the score at 25-23 after South Africa converted the try.

Despite being a man down, South Africa came out roaring in the second half, scoring their fourth try of the evening after a perfectly timed low kick pass was rifled out wide by Feinberg-Mngomezulu, which Kolbe collected at full speed to run on and score.

Ten minutes later, the South African fly-half completed his hat-trick of tries, having started the match without one to his name. A conversion brought the score to 39-23.

The Argentinians managed to reduce their deficit to nine points two minutes later after a converted try by Tomas Alboronoz brought his team’s tally to 30.

This was the last score the visitors managed, with the Springboks scoring another four tries in the final 25 minutes of the game.

The first was by substitute Morne van den Berg, followed by Pieter-Steph du Toit and Manie Libbok, and the final was by Du Toit in the 79th minute.

All were converted by Feinberg-Mngomezulu, bringing his tally to a record-breaking 37 for the match.

“This was a vibe. I am very happy,” the number ten said after the match. “We just wanted to play good rugby – put the work we have done in training into the game.”

South African head coach Rassie Erasmus commended him on his performance after winning the man-of-the-match award.

“He has grown a little bit against New Zealand, and a little bit against Australia away, and I think he only has 11 caps.”

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi echoed Erasmus’s sentiments about the fly-half, saying, “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.”

South Africa now leads the log with 15 points, followed by New Zealand with 14, Australia 11, and Argentina 9.

The Springboks will play their final match of the tournament against Argentina at Twickenham in London next weekend.