These Bok players will have Rassie smiling ahead of Nations Championship

OPINION: Round Three of the United Rugby Championship delivered several fine individual performances that can only bode well for the Springboks ahead of the Nations Championship, but none was more important than that of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

The Bulls and the Stormers came out on top in their respective derbies against the Lions and the Sharks, with the Stormers exacting revenge over the Sharks with a commanding 39-22 win at Cape Town Stadium and the Bulls obliterating the Lions 57-15 at Loftus.

While the results were important for the winning sides after both suffered defeats away from home in Round Two, with the Stormers going down to Edinburgh and the Bulls falling short against Munster, the individual performances that secured those results were equally important for the Springboks.

The Boks will resume their Nations Championship campaign in November, with Tests against Italy, France, and Ireland on their schedule for the Northern Hemisphere leg of the global tournament.

While they top the combined log after three Nations Championship wins against England, Scotland, and Wales during the July window and followed it up with a win over Argentina in Buenos Aires and three straight victories over the All Blacks in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, there were a number of players who were far from their best.

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Experimenting and testing combinations has been a major focus for Springbok boss Rassie Erasmus, and while there is a pretty clear picture of who his front-rankers are building up to the 2027 World Cup, some questions still linger as to his back-ups are a little over a year out from the global showpiece in Australia.

The mass return of Springboks were the driving force behind success for the Stormers and the Bulls, while some, like Sharks props Ox Nche and Thomas du Toit, had a forgettable afternoon as they were utterly outplayed (and outscrummed) by Wilco Louw and Ntuthuko Mchunu.

So, not all Boks delivered, but those who did were superb.

Cameron Hanekom started at No.8 for the Bulls and had an absolute blinder.

While Jasper Wiese owned the back of the scrum position this season, his back-up wasn’t as obvious, and the same could be said for a number of other Bok positions.

But a real claim was staked at the weekend.

Hanekom was in such a rampant mood against the Lions that he looked in a league of his own at times, and that’s saying something considering how polished and clinical the Bulls were as a collective.

From that hand-off that had Richard Kriel shooting in the opposite direction to his lectures in physicality, Hanekom made a statement with that outing.

Canan Moodie was another standout and put up a show that was graceful and constantly threatening at the same time, and perhaps the most pleasing aspect of his devastating stint was how clean it was.

When you get involved everywhere like that, a mistake or two is bound to slip in, but not in this case. And with guys like Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse at the front of the wing queue – and with Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel an established centre pairing – a performance like this one was much needed by Moodie to make his name a more prominent feature in the Bok-wing discussions.

Down in the Cape, Feinberg-Mngomezulu returned to form in sensational fashion with a masterful performance at 10.

His individual performance was perhaps the most important one in the national frame.

The 24-year-old started in all four Tests against New Zealand despite being way off the mark by his own standards, but his performance for the Stormers in Cape Town in his first match back at his franchise should provide a massive confidence boost ahead of his upcoming international assignments.

Based on his latest display, you’d never have guessed that as little as a month ago he struggled to emulate the form that saw him become the Boks’ first-choice 10.

He was all class against a Bok-laden Sharks outfit, setting up opportunities for those around him and for himself, with terrific kicking from hand and a running game that showed just why he is such a highly-rated presence.

He had the confidence, he had the influence, and the mental boost he got from this derby might just have been what he needed to get back on track for the Boks.

It wasn’t flawless from the Bok contingent as a whole, but those who had to deliver, did. And they did it in style.