WATCH | Mallett, Paulse urge Sharks duo to improve defence: 'Son, you need to make those tackles'

TV pundits Nick Mallett and Breyton Paulse say talented Sharks duo Aphelele Fassi and Thaakir Abrahams need to improve their defence.

Fassi and Abrahams both scored a brace of tries in Saturday's entertaining URC clash between Leinster and the Sharks in Dublin.

The Sharks scored five tries but leaked eight as Leinster won 54-34.

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Fassi and Abrahams were found out on defence and in their positional play, prompting a response from Mallett and Paulse in the SuperSport studio.

Paulse used an example of when Mallett was his Springbok coach in the late 1990s.

"Nick didn't hold back, I knew if I wanted to play for the Springboks, Nick told me: 'Breytie, you know you've got to make your tackles'.

"The advice here is to [say] which coach is going to go to Thaakir and say: 'Son, you need to make those tackles'.

"Fassi has to work on those kicks, you can't afford, at this level, to have two sliced kicks back-to-back. Those little things are so important and unfortunately that's the harsh reality if you want to become a good player."

Mallett added that Fassi needed to improve if he wanted to get back into the Springbok fold: "There's no question about it, he's so good on attack, he's so good going forward, he's got such good balance when he runs. He scored some great tries for the Springboks... one against Argentina when he plucked the ball out of the side of the field when it looked like it was going out from a cross-kick. It was absolutely outstanding...

"But then a glaring miss-tackle... just a bounce off the shoulder. If he just put his shoulder down, his head into the hip of that guy and [had] really driven him back, [then] there would have been a massive