{"id":32955,"date":"2025-08-22T18:48:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=32955"},"modified":"2025-08-22T21:34:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:34:29","slug":"boks-forced-into-fullback-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2025\/08\/22\/boks-forced-into-fullback-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Boks forced into fullback change"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_32956\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32956\" style=\"width: 654px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-32956\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-08-22-at-18.40.04-654x770.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"654\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-08-22-at-18.40.04-654x770.jpeg 654w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-08-22-at-18.40.04-994x1170.jpeg 994w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-08-22-at-18.40.04-768x904.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-08-22-at-18.40.04.jpeg 1087w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 654px) 100vw, 654px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32956\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: Backpagepix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus, has been forced to replace injured Bok centurion Willie le Roux with Aphelele Fassi at fullback for the second Rugby Championship Test against Australia in Cape Town on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Le Roux, who became the eighth player in South African rugby history to feature in 100 Tests earlier this season, suffered a niggle at training earlier this week and has not responded to treatment.<\/p>\n<p>This prompted Erasmus to draft Fassi straight into the starting line-up.<\/p>\n<p>Fassi started last week\u2019s Test against the Wallabies in Johannesburg, where the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2025\/08\/11\/erasmus-names-strong-squad-to-face-wallabies\/\">Springboks<\/a> went down 38-22, making this his second appearance in a row against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s unfortunate that Willie picked up a niggle this week in training. But he\u2019s been working so closely with Fassi, and we all know how talented Fassi is, so I\u2019m confident he\u2019ll do a great job.&#8221; said Bok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously, it\u2019s disappointing for Willie, I know how much he wanted to play in Cape Town with his family here. But I have no doubt Fassi will step up, like he has over the last few years,&#8221; Stick added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Springboks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Springboks<\/a> team to face Australia in Cape Town tomorrow \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ForeverGreenForeverGold?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ForeverGreenForeverGold<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WjKL6gL6K5\">pic.twitter.com\/WjKL6gL6K5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Springboks (@Springboks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Springboks\/status\/1958807616282411225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Squad update: Aphelele Fassi will start at fullback against the Wallabies on Saturday following the withdrawal of Willie le Roux due to a niggle \ud83d\udd00<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Springboks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Springboks<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ForeverGreenForeverGold?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ForeverGreenForeverGold<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Springboks (@Springboks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Springboks\/status\/1958778871651742102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Written by: Ntsako Mukhari<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus, has been forced to replace injured Bok centurion Willie le Roux with Aphelele Fassi at fullback for the second Rugby Championship Test against Australia in Cape Town on Saturday. Le Roux, who became the eighth player in South African rugby history to feature in 100 Tests ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-08-22-at-18.40.04.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32958,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32955\/revisions\/32958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}