South Africa: Major Sacha Injury Blow Puts Springbok Depth to the Test

Manie Libbok and Handré Pollard will shoulder more responsibility in the absence of the first-choice Bok flyhalf. Meanwhile, exciting young options continue to emerge.

There has been a lot of bad news on the injury front over the past few weeks with key Springboks such as Kwagga Smith, RG Snyman and Morné van den Berg ruled out for the rest of the season, and Ethan Hooker listed as doubtful for the Greatest Rugby Rivalry series against the All Blacks in August.

The last thing Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus needed ahead of the double-header in Gqeberha on 20 June was another major injury headache.

Yet here we are, weighing up South Africa's flyhalf options in the wake of the news that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu could be sidelined for three to six months after sustaining a serious ankle injury in the recent United Rugby Championship (URC) quarterfinal between the Stormers and Cardiff.

With this timeline in mind, the best-case scenario is Feinberg-Mngomezulu missing the matches against the Barbarians, England, Scotland and Wales in the coming weeks, and returning in time for the four Tests against the All Blacks. The worst-case scenario is one of the Springboks' key players missing most of the Test season - including that marquee series against New Zealand.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu has taken to social media in recent days to express his disappointment, and going...

AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.

Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox

By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.

To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.

There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.