Rugby
Aphelele Fassi: ‘There is no rivalry in the Springbok backline’─── ILSE SMALBERGER 08:59 Sat, 21 Jun 2025
Springbok full-back Aphelele Fassi says there is no rivalry between himself and fellow backline players Damian de Allende and Willie le Roux.
Fassi addressed a media conference earlier this week as South Africa prepare to launch their international rugby season next Saturday.
“I don't think it’s a rivalry, you know,” Fassi said. “I think obviously from what the coaches have been telling us, it’s just being able to build a squad in the right direction, being able to help each other week in and week out.”
Fassi said the last couple of weeks, he and De Allende have been helping each other with different areas of the game in order to improve, with Le Roux’s experience adding a vital component.
A massive tackle from Aphelele Fassi when it counts????
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“The aim for us is not to be able to bash each other up or anything, but it’s to be able to compete and be able to help each other going forward,” Fassi said.
Fassi said what he particularly enjoys about training in the Springbok camp is that each player is allowed to express himself within the structure of the game plan.
“I think as a rugby player, you just play your own game. But obviously, what’s in the game plan is how you put yourself into the game plan as well. So I think the coaches, like with Rassie and Tony, with their attack and how the defence works, are pretty much similar to each and every system.”
Asked if he believes he has come under the radar of other international teams, Fassi was philosophical.
“I think each and every year you play and each and every year you start, you have a target on your back. And I think that’s why we are sportsmen and that’s why we want to develop our game and be able to not be predictable. So it’s up to me to be able to tick those boxes and play a different style or come up with a different approach in how I go into games and how I play,” he said.
Fassi said the level of scrutiny players are under at the Bok camp is vastly different from provincial franchises, such as the Sharks, where he is signed.
“I feed off energy and I feed off guys, and I see how guys do things,” he said.
The Springboks’ international season starts next Saturday when they take on the Barbarians in Cape Town.
