Sharks fighting to keep Aphelele Fassi amongst transfer rumours
Sharks Director of Rugby Neil Powell made it clear that he wants Aphelele Fassi to extend his stay in Durban.
Recent reports suggest that the Stormers are eyeing the Springbok’s services. The 25-year-old’s contract expires at the end of this year and a move to Cape Town could be hard to turn down after the Stormers’ success on the field recently.
The Stormers were the subject of several transfer reports last week with flyhalf Manie Libbok linked to French club Racing 92. Rugby365 was told that a ‘BIG‘ transfer fee for the pivot, coupled with a player swap would be very attractive for the Cape franchise.
If that were to happen, Fassi could provide the Stormers with extra options in that backline as Damian Willemse will probably take over the flyhalf duties.
However, Powell is hoping it doesn’t come to that and the Durban franchise is ready to present Fassi with a new offer.
“We are obviously negotiating and we would like to hang onto Fassi,” Powell told reporters on Thursday ahead of his team’s United Rugby Championship clash against the Lions on Saturday.
“We will have those discussions with him away from the game and when we feel it’s appropriate to speak to him about it.
“We don’t want to take his focus away from this weekend [against the Lions] and what we need from him this weekend.”
On that fixture at Ellis Park on Saturday, Powell knows how vital it is to get a win after his team suffered a demoralising 19-46 defeat to the Stormers two weeks ago.
“We all know these next three games [Lions, Ulster and Stormers] will be important, but again the focus can only be on our performance,” Powell explained.
“I think sometimes you get beaten by a better team and sometimes you play well enough to be successful and the only things we can control is what we want to achieve from this weekend.
“We have planned accordingly and selected the team accordingly. I think we will take it one game at a time.
“It’s no use focusing on the Ulster [Durban] game or the Stormers game in Cape Town in two weeks.
“The focus and the energy needs to go into this game against the Lions.
“From a mental and a physical perspective, we will make sure that we pitch up for that game on Saturday.”
Latest Comments
What do you mean should?
Are you asking these questions because you think they are important reasons a player should decide to represent a country?
I think that is back the front. They are good reasons why someone 'would' be able to choose Fiji (say in the case of Mo'unga's cousin who the Drua brought into their environment), but not reason's why they "should". Those need to be far more personal imo.
If you think it was me suggesting he "should" play for Fiji, I certainly wasn't suggesting that. I was merely suggesting he would/could because ther'ye very close to his heart with his dad having represented them.
I did go on to say the right sort of environment should be created to encourage them to want to represent Fiji (as with case of their european stars it's always a fine balance between wanting to play for them and other factors (like compared with personal develop at their club). but that is also not trying to suggest those players should want to play for Fiji simply because you make the prospect better, you're simply allowing for it to happen.
TLDR I actually sent you to the wrong post, I was thinking more about my reply to HU's sentiments with yours. Instead of running you around I'll just paste it in
Actually I can't remember if it was that message or whether it indeed was my hypothetical Fiji example that I wanted to suggest would improve the International game, not cheapen it.
I suppose I have to try and explain that idea further now. So you say it cheapens the game. They game is already "cheap" when a nation like Fiji is only really allowed to get their full team going in a WC year. Or even it's the players themselves only caring about showing up in a WC year. To me this is a problem because a Fiji campaign/season isn't comparable to their competitors (in a situation where they're say ranked in the top 8. Take last year for instance. Many stars were absent of the Pacific Nations Cup, for whatever reason, but hey, when their team is touring a big EU nation like England or Ireland, wow suddenly theyre a high profile team again and they get the stars back.
Great right? No. Having those players come back was probably detrimental to the teams performance. My idea of having Sotutu and Bower encouraged (directly or indirectly) to play for Fiji is merely as a means to an end, to give the Flying Fijians the profile to both enrich and more accurately reflect the international game. You didn't really state what you dislike but it's easy to guess, and yes, this idea does utilize that aspect which does devalue the game in other cases, so I wanted to see if this picture would change that in this example (just and idea I was throwing out their, like I also said in my post, I don't actually think Sotutu or any of these players are going anywhere, even Ioane might still be hopeful of being slected).
The idea again, raise the visibility on the PNC so that can stand as a valued tournament on it's own and not require basic funded by WR to continue, but not enough to involve all the best players (even Japan treated it as a chance to play it's amatuers). Do this by hosting the PI island pool in places like Melbourne every other year, include some very high profile and influential team in it like an All Black team, and yes, by the nations getting together and creating ways to increase it's popularity by say asking individuals like Sotutu and Bower to strength it's marketability, with the hopeful follow on affect that stars like Botia and Radradra always want to (and can) represent their country. With Fiji as the example, but do it with Samoa and Tonga as well. They will need NZ and Aus (Japan) assistance to make a reality imo.
I don't believe this cheapens the game, I believe it makes it more valued as you're giving players the choice of who they chose to play for rather than basing it off money. Sotutu would never have forgone his paycheck to play for Fiji instead of NZ at the beginning, so you should viewed his current choice as 'cheap'
Go to commentsYou've lost me. Are you saying theyre already playing as part of the competition?
Or is this you saying you're against some sort of manipulation of the game? You want it to happen organically when the game/clubs are ready?
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