-
General view of a ball during a warmup match
The competition for spots in the Springbok starting line-up is creating camaraderie among the players, which they say will benefit the team even more.
Returning lock, Lood De Jager and fullback Aphelele Fassi are just two players with quality rivals in their positions and they see it as a blessing.
At the recent Springbok training camp, just under 60 players were involved in the preparation for the upcoming international season.
That means the competition for places in the starting line-up is fierce but Aphelele Fassi says the players don’t see it as a fight but rather an opportunity to make each other better, as is the case with him and Willie Le Roux.
“I try to learn off him and feed off him and then in situations where I kind of don’t see or don’t know what to do. I kind of feed off him and yeah, he’s been a massive impact with me even yesterday or the day before we were training and after training, I came and set with him and asked him a few questions and the answers he gave me was something that I really needed and something that builds me going into the season,” Fassi says.
The @Barbarian_FC will announce their final squad in the coming days – if you could bring one of these former #Springboks back, who would it be? 🫡
Don’t miss out, grab your tickets now from Ticketmaster South Africa – click here: 🎟
There’s rugby …… pic.twitter.com/pWF7sMGjto
— Springboks (@Springboks) June 21, 2025
The Boks are blessed this season, with an abundance of talent at lock. De Jager joins the likes of Eben Etzebeth, RG Snyman and Ruan Nortje.
“There’s a lot of depth at lock at the moment I think Ruan did a great job last year when there was a bit of an injury crisis especially in those two games against the All Blacks and really showed what he can do. The great thing is that it is competitive, really competitive but it’s good competition, there’s good spirit between the boys but we push each other to get the best out of each other and it will be great to see how things end up going into the test season,” says De Jager.
The Springboks’ first match is against the Barbarians next Saturday, in Cape Town, with a squad of 45 players available for selection.
