You only have to listen to the praise heaped on Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu by his fellow players to know what a very special talent he is. The DHL Stormers fly-half has been chosen as the URC Players’ Player of the Season in a poll of the captains and vice captains from the 16 teams.
In outlining their motivations for selecting him, they talked about his X-Factor moments, his game-changing ability, his all-round threat and how beautiful he is to watch.
The 24-year-old Springboks star has certainly had some season.
He was the top points scorer in the regular URC campaign with 158, while he was also second for goal kicking (113), third for defenders beaten (54) and in the top six for tries scored (9), clean breaks (20) and metres gained (762).
DHL Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson says: “I think he is a generational player. We are going to enjoy him for a while to come.
“He has grown up very quickly from being the X-Factor, playing off the cuff guy to taking the responsibility of driving the team.
“When he first came along, it was almost like a party impact, to do something crazy. Now he has got to drive the team forward before his own stuff and he has definitely matured. He is the most vocal guy on the field.
“You think it’s all this natural ability, but his work ethic and his detail is magnificent. He spends a lot of time previewing the opposition, looking at what their triggers are.”