Matfield backs Feinberg-Mngomezulu as Springboks' first-choice 10 despite second-year struggles

Victor Matfield has thrown his weight behind Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu as the Springboks’ first-choice fly-half, even as the 24-year-old navigates a difficult second season in the Test arena. The former South Africa captain made his views clear on his Rugby Rivals podcast, saying Feinberg-Mngomezulu “needs to work through this second-year syndrome” before reasserting himself at No.10.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu has started all three Tests of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series to date, though his campaign has been far from straightforward. He was initially dropped to the bench for the second Test in Cape Town before an injury to Handre Pollard — who had been named to start — brought him back into the side. In Saturday’s 29-24 victory in Johannesburg, he spent much of the match at full-back after Cheslin Kolbe was forced off in the opening quarter, with Manie Libbok taking over at fly-half.

Coach Rassie Erasmus has rotated his options at 10 throughout the series, a situation complicated further by an ankle injury that ruled Feinberg-Mngomezulu out of the Nations Championship earlier this year. Matfield acknowledged that the squad currently has three genuinely distinct options at the position.

“I think in Cape Town when we were under pressure, we wanted to go back to Handre Pollard, who can really control the game, keep the forwards on the front foot, play a conservative type of game where you manage it by your pack of forwards and your nine and 10 with a kicking game,” Matfield said.

He was equally complimentary about Libbok, noting that South Africa’s two tries in Johannesburg both came from the Stormers playmaker’s wide passing game. “If you want to open it up, I think he’s probably the best of all three,” Matfield said of Libbok.

Despite that praise, Matfield maintained that Feinberg-Mngomezulu remains the frontrunner for the jersey in the long run. “I still think it will probably be Sacha. He just needs to work through this second-year syndrome, and that always happens because I think the expectations are so high for him just to go out there and do magic, where I think he’ll need to learn now how to build it, just to build pressure, and when the opportunity comes, then you take it, because he’s got all the skills for that.”

Feinberg-Mngomezulu had appeared close to untouchable at the end of 2024, but Matfield’s assessment reflects a broader sense that the playmaker must now prove he can perform under sustained scrutiny rather than relying on the instinctive brilliance that defined his breakthrough campaign.