Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu receives plaudits for response in Springboks' win over All Blacks

The fly-half was initially dropped to the bench for the second Rugby's Greatest Rivalry Test match between South Africa and New Zealand with Handre Pollard taking over in the number 10 jersey.

However, the veteran pivot suffered a calf injury in training ahead of the game and was forced to withdraw, so Feinberg-Mngomezulu was reinstated as starting fly-half despite his underwhelming performance in the opening game at Ellis Park.

The young Springbok was heavily scrutinised for that showing in Johannesburg but has now earned the praise of former head coach Mallett, who said that he produced a shift akin to that of the man who was supposed to start the game on Saturday in the Mother City, guiding South Africa to a 33-26 victory.

Mallett said as much when appearing on SuperSport's Final Whistle Presents Side Entry show when discussing the changes Rassie Erasmus made from Test I to Test II, including the last-minute alterations to his team.

The Boks head coach controversially switched his starting front-row with the one that was on the bench, a decision that has sparked debate worldwide.

"He picked a team with Pollard in it that looked as though it was the correct one, and then Pollard had to withdraw on Thursday, and Sacha came back in," Mallett said.

"What was very positive was that Sacha played like Pollard. His defence was very good, but he didn't try to do anything himself."

As mentioned above, last week Mallett was unimpressed with the performance of Feinberg-Mngomezulu and his halfback partner Grant Williams. However, he was far more pleased with the contributions of the nine and ten with Cobus Reinach taking over from the injured Williams.

"He (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) absolutely just stuck to the game plan, as did Cobus Reinach, who I thought also played nicely, played up his forwards, and played the backs at the right time," he continued.

"It was just a very focused performance. Only four penalties against the Springboks - that's extraordinary in a Test match - and eight against the All Blacks. So only 12 penalties in a game. I mean, the ref did a lot of coaching on the field⦠but we were good. We were very, very good.

"We were excellent without the benefit of getting our normal four or five scrum penalties because of the way the scrum was managed."

Mallett was joined on the show by legendary Springboks lock Victor Matfield who also hailed South Africa's performance, stating that they capitalised on their traditional strengths - much like New Zealand have done since Dave Rennie took over from Scott Robertson.

"The All Blacks went back to their DNA, and that's why they're so competitive," he explained.

"After the loss, we always just went back to our DNA and what it is: kicking game and then our maul; we haven't seen a maul in the midfield in the last few months, we've only seen four man and we play from there, but maul is coming back."

Matfield pointed to the Boks' first try as an example of this, with Jesse Kriel crossing the whitewash after a powerful maul which was followed by several carries where South Africa crossed the advantage line before the centre crashed over.

"It was almost a 20-metre maul. I think going forward, the maul is just going to come more and more into the game again because of those guys that can't stay there," he explained, referencing how multiple All Blacks players had to bail out the maul and rejoin from behind the last man's feet.

"And then just going forward, once we got to the 22, and remember last week this is where we couldn't score, but here, we had options and our guys were running onto the ball. They weren't waiting deep."

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