1
Exciting Aphelele Fassi on the main reason he has stayed
By URC SA
The crunch SA Shield derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday will showcase an electrifying showdown between Hollywoodbets Sharks Aphelele Fassi and Vodacom Bulls playmaker Willie le Roux.
Fassi has made a flying start to the 2023-24 BKT United Rugby Championship and scored a try-double in last week’s emphatic victory over the visiting Welsh Dragons, while World Cup-winner Le Roux returned from a Springbok-enforced break to make his Vodacom Bulls debut in style, dotting down for one of his team’s seven tries in an impressive destruction of Connacht.
Fassi has made more carry metres than any other player in the BKT URC this season (565) and was directly involved in 10 line breaks in total, making six himself and assisting a further four, the most of any player.
The 25-year-old turned down lucrative offers to leave Durban and resigned with the Hollywoodbets Sharks, determined to soar to new heights with his boyhood club.
“The main reason I stay is because I still want to do more for this jersey at the Hollywoodbets Sharks,” said Fassi.
“Coming into the new season, I need to focus on getting that consistency in my performance, reviewing where I can improve after each game.”
Having made a try-scoring Springboks Test debut against Georgia in 2021, Fassi has added just two more caps to his collection, and he knows exactly what is required to push for a return to the Springbok fold.
There is no better time for Fassi to show his all-round growth as a player and leader in the backline than on Saturday, when he duels with incumbent Springbok fullback, Le Roux.
The 34-year-old is among a quartet of World Cup winners available to the Vodacom Bulls for the derby, on the back of a sensational first run in blue.
Back plying his trade in the Republic for the first time since 2016, Le Roux played like he was part of the furniture at Loftus Versfeld and showed why he will be integral to Jake White’s plans for the Vodacom Bulls.
"It’s the first time he’s played for us but it looked like he'd been with us for four years,” White said.
"He’s got unbelievable timing, he’s very skilful, clever and you can already see the impact he has with guys like Canan [Moodie] and Kurt-Lee [Arendse].”
The rivalry between these two South African heavyweight contenders goes back decades, as the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Vodacom Bulls have battled for domestic titles and Super Rugby silverware in the past.
In the BKT URC, they faced off in the 2021-22 quarter-finals, where the Vodacom Bulls snatched a dramatic win on home turf and most recently, it is the Hollywoodbets Sharks who have held the bragging rights after beating their rivals 47-20 on South Africa's East Coast.
Saturday’s match presents Fassi with an important opportunity to prove he has outgrown his reputation as a rookie, and that his challenge for Bok honours is one that must be taken very seriously. The priority for Le Roux will be to show why 93 Test caps uniquely qualifies him to remain South Africa’s first-choice fullback in 2024.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
Go to comments