Fassi shows special quality in vintage Leinster showing: 'He's not fazed by anything'

Aphelele Fassi returned from a month out with an ankle injury to produce a vintage performance in the Sharks' close win over United Rugby Championship leaders Leinster on Saturday night.

It was like he never left.

Fassi was fantastic at fullback, much like before he sustained the injury in the game against Zebre at Kings Park last month.

The 24-year-old counter-attacked intuitively to create an opening for Sharks scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse as Leinster were hoping to consolidate after breaking the deadlock with the opening try.

As it happened | URC - Sharks v Leinster

His scything run left Leinster flat-footed and his feed to Hendrikse eliminated defenders in the way.

He could have had another try assist or score himself bar a try-saving tackle during which he offloaded to Curwin Bosch inside the last 10 minutes.

The TMO, however, deemed his offload to have gone forward.

Head coach Sean Everitt didn't hold back the praise, adding that he hoped to see Fassi, who has two Test caps and two tries, among the Springbok representatives for the winter Wales inbound tour.

"He's come back from a lengthy injury and he was on form before he got injured," Everitt said.

"He returned to play tonight (Saturday) and we probably rushed him back [because] he only had one week of return to the field training.

"But the character he is, he just gets on with the job. He's not fazed by anything and he's certainly got the X-factor.

"I think tonight you'd have seen that his kicking game has also improved.

"It's really good to have a guy like that back and we just hope that he gets higher honours later in June when the international window opens." 

?? Videos+?? Vodacom #URC+?? Best tries+?? Cell C Sharks+?? Aphelele FassiAnother classic to add the fullback's