South Africa 40-9 Georgia: Boks unleash flyer Fassi in warm-up win

IT TOOK a while, almost an hour in fact, for the Springbok machine to splutter into life but once it did, it steamrolled Georgia and rumbled to a big win at Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria.

Not that this somewhat disjointed performance came as much of a surprise. After all, it had been over 600 days since the world champions were last in action and some rust was to be expected.

There were early signs that the cogs were well greased despite the previous inertia.

Georgia opened the scoring through a Tedo Abzhandadze penalty on three minutes, but the Boks bounced back two minutes later with a try for Aphelele Fassi on debut.

The 23-year-old winger was put into space with a well-worked move that culminated with a pass from Pieter Steph du Toit, who completed yet another 80 minutes of hard graft less than a year on from almost losing his left leg to a freak injury.

That five pointer was not converted and nor did it spur the Springboks on. Poor decisions saw Abzhandadze slot two more penalties by the 25th minute for a 9-5 lead.

“They caught us a little (by surprise),” admitted Jacques Nienaber, taking charge of the Springboks as head coach for the first time. “Our discipline was poor in the first half.”

Two tries in as many minutes – one a rolling maul from the lineout from hooker Bongi Mbonambi and another the result of a fortuitous bounce from the resulting restart for No.9 Cobus Reinach – meant the Boks went into the break 19-9 up.

And Georgia's cause was not helped by losing flanker Beka Saghinadze to the sin bin on 35 minutes for repeated infringements around the ruck.

 

Opportunist: Cobus Reinach scores before half-time

“We did everything we wanted from the game,” said captain Siya Kolisi. “We didn't start the way we wanted. We couldn't get our systems going, our mauling and scrumming.”

By the 50 minute mark the gulf in resources became evident. The Springboks replaced their entire front row with a trio of World Cup winners.

It was from the base of a scrum that No.8 Kwagga Smith scored a relatively uncontested try and before the hour substitute scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies crossed over having collected a Handre Pollard grubber.

Malcom Marx made it a brace of tries from a rolling maul off the lineout. This potent weapon proved decisive throughout the Springbok's campaign in Japan and it is no secret that they will turn to it against the Lions.

When asked if there was anything from the training ground that was left unused in the hopes of deceiving Warren Gatland, Kolisi gave an honest reply: “We didn't hold anything back. We're not hiding what we're going to bring. That physicality, that warrior spirit.

“Our set-piece is important to us, and we know it will be important to the Lions.”

Apart from Fassi, sevens ace Rosko Specman made his debut on the opposite wing. So too did Leicester Tiger's breakthrough star Jasper Wiese who was a 63rd minute substitute for Smith. The rookie threw his sizable weight around and also found himself in an off the ball scrap. He looks every bit a Springbok and should feature in the Test series.

The last ten minutes had the air of a training match. The Springboks began to throw the ball around without finding any runners while the Georgians – who deserve an immense amount of credit for making the tour under strict covid protocols – ran out of puff.

Nienaber did not sidestep the fact that his team is out of practice: “We didn't have a meter for 20 months,” he said. “Now we do. We can build from this.”