Naas Botha has doubled down on his praise for Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and feels the Springboks star is set to transform fly-half play after shining at Test level in 2025.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu has made big strides in the international arena and has already made 19 appearances for South Africa since making his Test debut against Wales at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham in 2024.

He made 11 Test appearances for the Springboks in 2025, starting eight of those encounters with the Boks winning every one of the games he donned the number 10 jersey.

Although Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus also has the likes of Handre Pollard, Manie Libbok and Jordan Hendrikse available to play at fly-half, Feinberg-Mngomezulu has been the player he has turned to as his chief playmaker for crunch matches.

Set new Springboks point-scoring record

Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored his first Test try in the Rugby Championship fixture against Argentina in Durban – a match in which he finished with a hat-trick of five-pointers and broke Percy Montgomery’s record for the most points scored by a Bok player in a Test (37).

He went on to score further tries in triumphs over Japan (two), France, Ireland and Wales (two), breaking the record for the most tries scored by a Springbok fly-half (nine).

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Botha, who made 28 Test appearances for South Africa between 1980 and 1992, has sung Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s praises in the past and reiterated that he feels the 23-year-old deserves to be recognised as the Boks’ first-choice fly-half.

“You know, somebody the other day was trying to compare the one with the other one. And this one and who’s the better one,” Botha told SportsBoom.

“And the question I’m trying to raise is why must there always be who’s the better one?

It depends on the coach what he wants for a particular game. If he wants that style and he believes that guy suits what he wants out of that game and if that’s Sacha, then that’s it.”

Botha added that he believes the sky is the limit for the 23-year-old.

‘He’s seriously going to take it to a different level’

I think at the moment Sacha is proving a point, and I think seriously he’s going to take fly-half play to a different level. He’s seriously going to take it to a different level, he said.

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What I like about the situation at the moment is that normally we see guys playing two, three, four great games. Then suddenly you must take a break. A sportsman plays with confidence. He’s got the confidence.

So, keep playing him. I feel sorry for the other guys. If they have to sit on the bench a little bit, then you sit on the bench until he starts making mistakes.

“But at the moment, my attitude towards that whole thing is let’s appreciate what we see.