Sharks flyer Aphelele Fassi brimming with confidence after stellar performance

His last two seasons have been marred by injuries and he's had to lift himself following one disappointment after the other.

Against Edinburgh, he played with a lot of confidence, freedom and enjoyment and it showed in his outstanding performance on the day.

He credits his form with being in the right physical space after the disappointments of the previous two seasons.

"The most important thing for me is my health and keeping fit," he told the Sharks' website.

"In the past two seasons, injuries got to me and I didn't get consistency and game time, but this year I've played every game and I'm really happy to have been able to play consistently.

"Saturday's performance was being able to pull out a few tricks and helping to put the team on the front foot where I could."

Looking back, he explains that he suffered back-to-back injuries and was out for a total of 16 weeks, which was a difficult and testing time for him to endure.

"I played for SA 'A' and after being injured, was out for 10 weeks, then played three games before breaking my tibia and that was another six weeks out," recollected Fassi."Then I came back, played three games before the season ended.  After that, the big focus for me was on my recovery and putting a lot of time into that. I had to face reality and worked hard during the pre-season. Now, every times I play or train, I feel fresh and strong."

Coming into this season, staying healthy and injury-free was the big focus.

"Having a full pre-season, setting your goals and identifying strengths and weaknesses, I had the opportunity to work on those things," he explains.

"I've also spent a lot of time with Joey Mongalo working on my defence. It's the same with my kicking game, bringing in a different dimension to my game and avoiding being predictable. The influence of Joey and Dave Williams in the pre-season and in-season has helped me so much, to vary my game, be it running or kicking."

Looking ahead to the EPCR Challenge Cup Round of 16 against Zebre, he admits that following the two URC victories, the team is in a good space to tackle the new challenge.

"The squad is very confident after the two victories over Ulster and Edinburgh and coming into a different competition, we know the stakes are different," Fassi added. 

"It's a knock-out game and we know Zebre will come here with a lot of passion and physicality. For us, it's about managing that and putting our forwards in the right places and once we get those opportunities, knocking them out will be crucial for us."

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