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.

- DANIEL GALLAN

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.