Rassie Erasmus: Aphelele Fassi ‘definitely part of Springboks plans’ and backs dropped forward to play ‘a lot of Tests’
Rassie Erasmus says that Aphelele Fassi and Ben-Jason Dixon are in the Springboks plans despite falling out of the team for the second All Blacks' Test.
Rassie Erasmus says that Aphelele Fassi was brilliant in the first Test match against the All Blacks and that he is still part of the team’s plans despite his omission from the second game.
Meanwhile, the Bok boss also addressed Ben-Jason Dixon’s exclusion, saying the forward is being too hard on himself after an underwhelming outing against New Zealand.
Fassi was handed the starting fullback jersey for the clash at Ellis Park after impressing in the Test match against Australia in Perth where he scored a try in the victory over the Wallabies.
The Sharks’ outside back made the most of his opportunity according to the Springboks boss despite his exclusion for the second match with Willie Le Roux returning to the starting role.
Fassi is definitely in Springboks’ plans
Erasmus marvelled over Fassi’s performance in Johannesburg but explained that the experience of Le Roux factored into their selection plans for the clash in Cape Town.
“Fassi was brilliant, we asked him specifically to do certain things well in the game and the other things just do what you do naturally,” the head coach said.
“His defence was rock solid, his kicking game was good, his highball game was good and again we’ve got a guy that’s on 97 caps [Le Roux] playing with Handre Pollard.
“There are 19 guys that were at the World Cup in this group so I don’t think we’ve been unfair to the other guys, giving them exposure.”
Erasmus has made seven changes to his matchday 23 and continues to a 2024 trend of making several changes to his team from game to game, something that he says they will continue to do going forward particularly if it continues to produce wins.
“We will keep on doing it and it’s nice to do it while you’re winning, the moment you do it while you’re losing it almost looks like a knee-jerk reaction or something that’s not planned,” he added.
“We’ve got a little bit of a plan on how we want to run the next three years and Fassi is definitely part of that plan.”
Ben-Jason Dixon’s disappointment
Meanwhile, Erasmus has urged forward Dixon to not be so hard on himself after he posted on social media about not having ‘the best day at the office’ in his first game against the All Blacks.
Dixon produced standout performances against Wales, Portugal and Australia but didn’t hit the same highs against New Zealand and was subsequently replaced before half-time as Erasmus opted to keep Eben Etzebeth on the pitch instead.
“He shouldn’t be so hard on himself and I told him that,” Erasmus said.
“We had a chat about his game and that’s the thing about some Test matches, especially New Zealand at Ellis Park, it is difficult.
“The hype and the crowd is a lot to take in and you feel the crowd pressure both ways, particularly with Springboks crowds, when you’re going well it feels like they carry you over that try line but when it’s going not well it’s quiet and it gets to some players.”
Despite the setback, the Springboks boss believes that Dixon will play a lot of Test matches for South Africa and said he will be back in the team soon after narrowly missing out on a place on the bench to Elrigh Louw.
“I think he’s going to play a lot of Test matches for South Africa, he’s definitely in the next number seven flanker that we think can do it,” he added.
“Again, we wanted to go for a 5-3 split and Elrigh did really well when he came on and had a great impact and Ben-Jason will probably play next round against Argentina.”
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