Rugby needs box-office Sacha

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has a problem. He’s extravagantly talented, young, good looking and bursting with big-match temperament. He’s also divisive, writes CLINTON VAN DER BERG.

Ahead of the Italy Test, Springbok great Victor Matfield suggested the flyhalf show more control and less flash. It’s a theme that has begun to percolate among rugby’s braai-side brigade in recent months.

South African fans love their winners, but many prefer them stoic, respectful, conservative, joyless even.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu was in the firing line again for apparently ignoring Damian Willemse, a good pal, when he offered a friendly hand slap, and for twirling his fingers like a happy conductor after his brilliant 50:22.

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Here’s the thing: rugby spends a fortune trying to make itself more watchable, and agonises over how to win younger fans. Then a 24-year-old arrives who makes people stop what they’re doing and watch, and we ask him to tone it down.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu is box office. He’s the player you stay in your seat for, the one who turns a routine phase into an event.

In Turin he dummied, sliced open the defence and raced in from 40m inside 10 minutes. He added a sublime 50:22, landed all 10 goal kicks and finished with 26 points, looking as relaxed as a man on a Sunday stroll.

That isn’t an indulgence. That’s a performance.

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Every sport needs stars. Football has its showmen, cricket its entertainers, tennis built an empire on personalities. Rugby, with its culture of keeping your head down, can be shy of them. Yet the moments fans remember most often come from players who dared to be different.

Swagger is fine if you deliver. When Percy Montgomery wore white boots two decades ago, he copped plenty of criticism, but he had earned the right through world-class performances.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu has too. Compare him with England’s overrated Henry Pollock, a gifted player who has yet to break open a Test. Our man does it routinely, and he wins matches for South Africa. Remember his extraordinary 37-point display against Argentina two years ago?

It’s also true that coach Rassie Erasmus will rein him in if he thinks his head is getting too big. It hasn’t happened yet, so what’s the problem?

Overseas scribes and former internationals rave about him. It’s only at home that we fixate on the peacocking and the perceived arrogance, blind to one of the most thrilling talents this country has produced in four decades.

He’s still young, and he’ll keep learning. But do we really want to sand the edges off the one player who makes the neutrals tune in?

Sure, the chest-out, finger-wagging style isn’t for everyone. But in a game that needs stars, Feinberg-Mngomezulu is a gift.

Cheer him, don’t chide him. He’s earned the stage. Let him strut.

Photo: Chris Ricco/Getty Images