Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu lights up South Africa’s nine-try rout of Japan

A dark, wet evening in Brent is a long way from the sun and sea of Brighton. And, boy, there were not many echoes here of rugby’s greatest upset – quite possibly sport’s – bar the names of the teams and the inimitable fellow sitting in Japan’s coaching box, Eddie Jones. South Africa were 43-point favourites in 2015 and a mere 37 this time, but the reality of lopsided rugby was all too formidably asserted.

Instead, it was Wembley that echoed, the lower tier around two-thirds full. South Africa, nine of whose squad play their rugby in Japan, wanted to organise this run-out to bring together their squad from around the world before the big one next Saturday against France. As an exercise it worked well enough, the Springboks utterly dominate from start to finish, notching up nine tries in the process.

“It’s interesting,” said Jones, “that in the 10 years since that game, South Africa have won two World Cups. What Ithat result did was refocus South African rugby on its DNA. Japan, though, hasn’t really developed its system to meet the demands of international rugby. It’s a real challenge for us. There are quality players in Japan. We just need to find a way to fast-track them.”

These days, South Africa are indisputably the best team in the world, and Japan some way shy of where they were 10 years ago. Michael Leitch, at one end of the spectrum, the talisman of 2015, is still there in the back row, aged 37. A full-back, Japan fielded the student Yoshitaka Yazaki, an amateur, who showed he is smart indeed when he went over for Japan’s solitary try, 10 minutes or so after the break, a tap and dart from a penalty during a rare phase of Japan pressure. Alas, they were 33-0 down at that point.

But that was it for romance in the suburbs of London. South Africa opened with a standard lineout and drive for their first try after three minutes, finished by their captain and talisman in the back row, Siya Kolisi. Then up stepped the latest star of South African rugby.

Let us not reach for any hyperboles just yet. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has been mentioned in the same breath as Dan Carter more than a few times, but we will settle here for saying he is really quite good. He took the record for points in a Test match this year, with his 37 against as formidable an opponent as Argentina, so he was always likely to look comfortable against Japan.

That he did. He weighed in with two tries, both individualist and brilliant, not dissimilar to You Know Who, who was the same age, 23, when he turned in the performance of the age against the Lions in 2005. Certainly, this bears no comparison with that masterclass, but, having converted Kolisi’s try, he followed up his own up-and-under to score South Africa’s second 10 minutes later, before showing off his running skills for another five minutes after that.

Running on an arc, he dummied inside Dylan Riley and beat the long-levered, grasping Jack Cornelsen to canter to the posts in imperious style. All right, this was a friendly against overpowered opposition, but he will be around for some time. It is not as if they do not already have Handre Pollard, sitting in the stands for this. The Springboks’ depth is the envy of the world.

The new term these days is “hybrid player” and the two coaches are just the type to peddle its use. Japan had Tiennan Costley on their bench, a back-row forward who covered the wing – and indeed came on in that position. But South Africa boast the prototype in Kwagga Smith.

Now they add to their armoury Andre Esterhuizen, until recently Quins’ beloved giant in the centre. He came on to play in the back row – seems only natural – and thought he had one try from a lineout, which was chalked off, before powering over round the fringes for one that stood.

That was South Africa’s seventh. Either side of it, Kurt-Lee Arendse, one of who knows how many electric runners the Springboks have at their disposal, scored twice. He picked up when Yazaki spilled an up-and-under and coasted home, before a Cheslin Kolbe – there’s another one – break put him over for his second.

Both sides enjoyed a lap of the famous pitch, but the match itself will not live on like its more famous iteration 10 years ago.