1
Cobus Reinach downplays pressure talk on Bok with 'rugby in his blood'
By Josh Raisey
South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus scoffed at the idea of dropping rookie flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to the bench this weekend for the visit from the All Blacks, emphasising that they have been building towards this moment for him all year.
The six-cap Springbok may only be 22 years of age, but he has overcome every challenge thrown his way so far since making his debut against Wales in June, so the only logical step for Erasmus was to see how he fares against their greatest rivals.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu's selection at flyhalf for round three of the Rugby Championship may have surprised many who expected the Boks to revert to a more experienced side. Springboks legend Percy Montgomery was one who was fairly convinced that Handre Pollard would start at Ellis Park when joining RugbyPass TV's most recent episode of the Boks Office. But Erasmus has never been afraid to make big calls.
This match is perhaps as big as Test rugby gets outside of the World Cup, and is indeed a repeat of the World Cup final last October. But Feinberg-Mngomezulu's halfback partner Cobus Reinach has backed his teammate to rise to the occasion, saying he has "rugby in his blood".
The Montpellier No9 knows a "big team effort" will be required to win in Johannesburg, but has downplayed any suggestion that there is pressure on his young teammate.
“Sacha has rugby in his blood,” he said. “I saw a thank you speech he did when he was 13 years-old, and that’s the type of confidence he has on the field.
“When he goes out there, he just wants to express himself, and as a team we all back him.
“He may be young, but he is not under pressure. We all have a job to do, and we back each other to do it, so if someone makes a mistake, we help each other, try to fix it, and move onto the next job.”
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Ex-All Black stars for Toulon in last-gasp win
3
The changes Scott Robertson must make to address All Blacks’ struggles
4
'All of our own doing': John Mitchell's warning for England
5
Latest Comments
Hopefully Robertson and co aren't applying this type of thinking to their selections, although some of their moves this year have suggested that might be the case.
The first half of Foster's tenure, when he was surrounded by coaches who were not up to the task, was disastrous due to this type of reactionary chopping and changing. No clear plan of the direction of travel or what needs to be built to get there. Just constant tinkering. A player gets dropped one week, on the bench the next, back to starting the next, dropped for the next week again. Add in injuries and other variations of this selection pattern, combined with vastly different game plans from one week to the next and it's no wonder the team isn't clicking on attack and are making incredibly basic errors on both sides of the ball.
When Schmidt and Ryan got involved selections became far more consistent and the game plan far simpler and the dividends were instant, and they accepted bad performances as part of building towards the world cup. They were able to distinguish between bad plans and bad execution and by the time the finals rolled around they were playing their best rugby as a team.
Chopping and changing the team each week sends the signal that you don't really know what you are doing or why, and you are just reacting to what happened last week, selecting a team to replay the previous game rather than preparing for the next one and building for the future.
Go to commentsI thought Dan McK would work out there but his style was sufficiently 'on trend' for the Prem. Reckon Chekko may be a better fit with his more positive approach.
Go to comments