We gave Sacha captaincy too soon — Stormers coach Dobson admits error with young flyhalf

Springbok sensation Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will not be captaining the Stormers any time soon as coach John Dobson quiets the noise around the X-factor flyhalf.

This week, the Stormers travel to Loftus Versfeld for a United Rugby Championship derby against the Bulls, and Dobson says he has told Feinberg-Mngomezulu to concentrate on his game management while leaving the leadership to others.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu captained the Stormers against the Leicester Tigers and in the two matches against the Sharks, but for the Stormers’ visit to the Lions in their last outing, Dobson gave the reins to senior forward JD Schickerling.

Dobson said that Schickerling had enjoyed a good outing, despite the team losing.

“JD did well, he did what he could, he asked for a penalty try, we kept our penalty count down to seven, and he will be in the frame again this week, depending on who else is in the team,” the coach said.

“We won’t put the captaincy pressure back on Sacha. If a Ruhan (Nel) or a Deon (Fourie) starts against the Bulls, we will take a look at that; otherwise, we will continue with JD. We haven’t selected the team yet, but we definitely won’t bounce it back to Sacha.”

Dobson admitted that he erred in giving the captaincy to Feinberg-Mngomezulu too soon, but he is certain that he one day will be a great captain.

“Sacha is very keen to captain, and we have discussed that as being in his future,” said Dobson.

“I will tell you where I just think this guy has something special. In that game against the Sharks in Durban, you will remember we had a plan at the start, to isolate Andre (Esterhuizen) and go for the chop tackle, and we scored off a quick tap penalty. Sacha was heavily invested in that plan; he wanted us to have a fast start. Most people would have been celebrating, shouting ‘yes, yes, yes’.

“Alternatively, as he was our place-kicker, you’d have been expecting him to be focusing on the 60 seconds he had to attempt the conversion. But he went straight to the referee and asked if there shouldn’t be a card as the Sharks hadn’t retreated.

"That showed remarkable insight. The referee dismissed him, but I think he was right.

“That he’s got captaincy ability is beyond doubt, but the mistake I made is that I didn’t take into account the obvious overload of the expectation around him. He’s the David Beckham of SA rugby now, in terms of profile, he’s the X-factor guy; he’s our 10, and everyone’s 10 is always a game driver; our 10 calls the plays, and then to load the captaincy on what was then a 23-year-old was our mistake.

“So, we had a chat with him and said, ‘Sacha, you just focus on two of those things for now, and he respected that. I know he wants to captain, and was very accepting of the role, but in a couple of years, he will be an exceptional captain.

“It was our mistake there to put him under too much pressure. It also changed the character of the team a little bit because the responsibility is all on one guy, and I didn’t empower those around him enough. It was more our fault than his.”

* Mike Greenaway is a senior rugby reporter at Independent Media and a contributor on our Last World on Rugby podcast on our YouTube channel, The Clutch.