Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach JP Pietersen has confirmed that it was an injury that has kept Aphelele Fassi out of Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby against the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus on Saturday and it could have fairly long term indications.
According to Pietersen, the Springbok fullback sustained a shoulder injury in the match against the Lions last week and it could keep him sidelined for a minimum of six weeks, if not more depending on whether or not he will have to have surgery.
“It is a shoulder injury and he saw the surgeon this week,” said Pietersen at the team announcement press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Pretoria.
“Shoulder injuries are not my field of expertise and I am waiting to see the surgeon to see if the injury requires surgery or rehabilitation. If it is rehab he needs he will be out for a minimum of six weeks, if it is an operation then he could be out for possibly longer. I will have more clarification on that later in the day.”
The Sharks have a three week break after this before they next see action in a home URC clash with Munster at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on 21 March and by that time there will be more clarity, but at this point Fassi will be out until the first half of April as a best case scenario.
Jaco Williams, one of the stars of last year’s Junior Springbok team that won the Junior World Cup, has been shifted to fullback for this game. The Sharks will miss Fassi’s experience in the last line of defence in what could be a hotly contested and potentially decisive aerial battle at altitude but Pietersen is confident that Williams will handle the challenge.
“Jaco is primarily a fullback so him playing the position will be no problem for him,” said the Sharks coach.
With Siya Masuku backing up flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse from the bench, Pietersen also has the option of moving Hendrikse to fullback later in the game should he see it as necessary. Hendrikse has played quite a bit of his senior rugby as a No 15.
Pietersen explained the absence of Bok stars like Siya Kolisi, Grant Williams and Ethan Hooker to the Bok resting protocols.
“SIya, Grant and Ethan are all resting but we do have Ox (Nche) and Andre (Esterhuizen) back after they rested last week. We were always going to play Andre in this game as he is our captain and is an important member of the team. It is good to have Ox back too.”
Also back in the team after a fairly lengthy absence is veteran Bok World Cup winning wing Makazole Mapimpi and Pietersen will be hoping the return of his experience will help offset the loss of Fassi in what could be an intriguing battle between the two teams’ respective back threes.
After the kicking game came up trumps against the Stormers in both Cape Town and Durban at the end of January, Pietersen was disappointed in how it went last week, although he reckons that the key work-ons this week were the elimination of errors that allowed the Lions access into the Sharks’ territory.
“What we identified after the Lions game was that there were 21 or 22 unforced errors. We didn’t win the territory battle, and only had 39 per cent territory. Unfortunately there were a lot of turnovers and knock-ons and this was an occasion where one plus one equals two - we can eliminate the opposition entries into our area if we are better in limiting turnovers and better in our overall execution.”
The Sharks won their home derby against the Bulls before Christmas and were also the winning team in both league derbies last year, home and away. They did however lose the last time they visited Loftus - which was for last year’s semifinal.