Ken Borland

The Lions have always played their rugby in expansive fashion believing that one or two mistakes are affordable if they are scoring plenty of tries themselves. It is a bold approach which Sharks fullback Aphelele Fassi is primed to try and take advantage of when the two sides meet in their United Rugby Championship match at Ellis Park on Saturday.

If Fassi has shown one thing so far in his exciting career it is how lethal he is when it comes to counter-attacking opportunities. And the Springbok who turns 24 on Sunday is just delighted to be getting out into the heat of action again, having last taken the field on November 20 in the Toyota Challenge friendly against the Free State Cheetahs. Before that, his previous game was on August 14 for the Springboks against Argentina.

“The Lions are always full of intensity and we expect a very fast game,” Fassi said on Tuesday. “They love to play with a lot of intensity and keep the ball in play.

“But then a lot of mistakes can also come into play and we need to be able to capitalise on the opportunities we get. If we get five chances, maybe we convert four of them, which would be great.

“But I’m just super-excited to get out there and play. It’s the first time playing in the United Rugby Championship for a lot of us, and for some of us it’s the first time we’re playing a match in a long time.

“The mood in the squad in general is relaxed and eager to play. We’re just delighted to have these fixtures,” Fassi said.

While it seems like the South African teams have been playing each other on an almost monthly basis when the rugby season has been in full swing, Fassi said the Sharks have their eyes set on improving their overseas performances in the new year.

“Phase 1 of the URC was playing overseas and it was quite difficult for us. But we will take those learnings into this year. Our goal is to improve and we look forward to rectifying those mistakes and building from there.

“The things I’ve learnt from the Springboks, obviously I’m trying to bring those to the team and there are a couple of Boks bringing experience from there.

“But we’re also taking knowledge from the URC guys as well, they’ve been telling us how the competition is,” Fassi said.

Given the great rivalry that exists between the two teams, it would be stupid not to expect the Springboks to find some extra motivation against the All Blacks in Townsville on Saturday, especially since it is the 100^th Test between the only two sides to have won the World Cup three times, but South Africa’s veteran eighthman Duane Vermeulen said on Tuesday that he was approaching the milestone fixture as just another international.

Given their unfocused displays in the last two matches against the Wallabies and Vermeulen’s slow return to full fitness after ankle surgery, it is understandable that the 35-year-old does not want to be distracted by any of the fanfare this week.

“We will take it as just another Test match; yes, it’s the 100^th match against the All Blacks, but we want to compete in the Rugby Championship and try and still win that competition. We are playing New Zealand and we will go out and give it our best whatever the occasion; the fact that it is the 100^th Test is for the people who write books.

“We can only talk about the ‘now’, the past has gone but we just want to improve on last week. New Zealand play a whole different style of rugby to Australia and we have got to prepare accordingly,” Vermeulen said.

Since the first Test between the teams – coincidentally also 100 years ago on 13 August 1921 in Dunedin (NZ won 13-5), the All Blacks have won 59 times and South Africa have 36 wins, with four matches drawn. But since the return from isolation in 1992, the Springboks have only won 16 of 62 Tests.

Nevertheless, South Africa are still New Zealand’s greatest rivals with the highest winning percentage (36.4%) against them of all opposition. Due to the travel restrictions imposed by Covid, this match is being played in north-eastern Queensland. The Springboks and All Blacks have met at a neutral venue on four occasions, all of them during World Cups, and South Africa’s only win came in Cardiff in 1999, 22-18.

South Africa need to beat New Zealand in successive matches for the first time since winning three in a row in 2009 to regain the Freedom Cup, which the All Blacks took off them in 2010.

Brodie Retallick, the talismanic New Zealand second-rower who has never lost to the Springboks, said his team are certainly embracing the history of the occasion.

“You can’t underestimate them. We’ve talked about the fact that it’s the 100^th Test between the two nations and they are the World Cup champions, it’s the first time the All Blacks have played a World Cup champion in a long time. So we’re going out there to give it our best shot and hopefully take it to them.

“Where they’ve caught us the last couple of times, when they did, was through their line-speed defensively. They’ve outmuscled us and we haven’t been able to break them down through our attack and then they’ve punished us. So physically, you’ve always got the set-piece battle but you also have to deal with their line-speed,” Retallick said.