By Gavin Rich.
@GettyImages.
The top Springboks are all resting as they start their off-season following a hectic two years where there’s been hardly a break, and the Vodacom Bulls and Emirates Lions are also away from work at present as they have a three-week break before their next game.
Given that they have both played 11 successive weeks of rugby, there are probably players from the Cell C Sharks and the DHL Stormers team that envy those that are resting. However, one player who doesn’t is Aphelele Fassi, the prodigiously talented Sharks fullback who is eager to make up lost time after injury in his quest to fight his way into the Bok World Cup squad.
Fassi’s injury-induced break from the game appears to have worked for him. There was still the odd tackle missed in the Heineken Champions Cup game against Harlequins at The Stoop two weeks ago, but then the Sharks’ overall defence was a problem that day due as much to the quick ball that Harlequins were playing with as anything else.
Last week, against Edinburgh at the DAM Health Stadium, Fassi underlined the value of a focused attempt on the part of the coaches to iron out his weaknesses by turning in an outstanding defensive performance on the 4G pitch that earned him the official Man of the Match award. So the last thing Fassi probably needed right now was to go into a three-week hiatus. For him, Saturday’s game against the URC champions comes just at the right time.
“Any rugby player has the aspiration to be in the World Cup squad. I recently started playing again and right now game time is very important. My mindset is to play the best rugby that I possibly can and hope it is enough to get called up,” said Fassi in an online press conference.
“There are a lot of things I have worked on since I got dropped by the Boks. I was told there were certain things I had to fix and I don’t think it is a secret that my tackling was the key thing as well as my kicking game.”
Both have improved, and both will be on trial in what could be a tight game that the Sharks simply have to win if they want to challenge for Shield honours, remembering of course that some bad luck when it comes to fixture scheduling – or to put it differently, Ulster’s reluctance to play with upset tummies – has conspired to give them a clash with resurgent Ulster in addition to the return game against the Stormers in Cape Town in the time the Boks will be away.
The absence of the Boks places additional responsibility on Fassi, as he doesn’t have the X-factor of the likes of Lukhanyo Am and Makazole Mapimpi to dovetail with this week. Given his senior status, the Sharks management will welcome the attitude that came through from Fassi this week.
“Everybody makes mistakes, nobody goes on to the field wanting to miss a tackle, but you have to fix your weaknesses and then it is about repetition until it becomes a strength,” he said.
“How do you gauge progress? You see it on the pitch when you are under pressure. It is hard to see if you have improved on the training ground because there is no pressure, and in terms of the game situations, I am proud of my performances and I can say I have made progress.”
And his presence in the Sharks’ last line of defence is a big boost to the team’s chances of inflicting what would be the first defeat the Stormers have suffered in a URC derby match in 14 months.