Rassie Erasmus’ verdict on Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Aphelele Fassi’s performances against the All Blacks
Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Aphelele Fassi.
Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has given his verdict on the performances of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Aphelele Fassi in the victory over the All Blacks.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored 16 points from the tee guiding the Springboks to a 31-27 victory over the All Blacks at Ellis Park despite two hiccups from the tee and a missed a drop goal.
Meanwhile, Fassi was sent to the sin bin in the opening quarter of the match after he made a tackle on Sam Cane inside in South Africa’s 22 resulting in a yellow card.
Performance of Test rookies
It was a testing match overall for the pair as the pressure was on them to perform in the positions that Handre Pollard and Willie Le Roux have dominated in recent years.
But Erasmus again hailed the professionalism of the veteran pair in preparing the younger players for the mighty clash against New Zealand at South Africa’s most iconic and hostile ground.
“We wanted those guys to experience this level and see if they handle it that’s how you learn about their characters,” Erasmus said after the match.
“I think Fassi came through with flying colours, I think Sacha came through with flying colours too.
“But that’s not to say Handre is out it [the selection frame] or that Manie (Libbok) is out of it, we are going to keep on building squad out.
“We have go to keep on building squads, as long as we keep winning – we know we could easily lost this game.
“I mean Sacha was emotional in the change room afterwards so for us it’s big, New Zealand’s big, and for players to step up from a tier one nation even a tier two Nation and then number two in the world – Ireland – and then the All Blacks – who are just an amazing team, for players to perform it takes guys like this [Siya] to do it in games like that.”
Dixon change
Meanwhile, flanker Ben-Jason Dixon also made his first appearance against the All Blacks but his night was cut short when Ruan Nortje returned from an HIA check and instead of Eben Etzebeth returning to the bench, it was the Test rookie who departed after just 38 minutes.
It wasn’t the flanker’s finest outing for the Boks and Erasmus confirmed that his departure was a tactical switch to ensure that Pieter-Steph du Toit was not overworked and could go the full 80 minutes.
“We felt sorry for Ben-Jason Dixon because we wanted to give Pieter-Steph du Toit some rest [from scrummaging] because he played lock, then flank, then lock again and Pieter didn’t even know his name at the end but we are very happy with all the youngsters,” Erasmus added.
