Aphelele Fassi score a try the last time Georgia was in town and the Lelos won’t be excited to see him recalled when they face the Springboks in Nelspruit on Saturday.

The match at Mbombela Stadium will be just the third meeting between the teams, with the Boks coming off two comfortable wins against Italy, while Georgia arrive on the back of a 34-5 loss to an understrength Ireland in Tbilisi and a 24-20 defeat to the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

Ranked 11th in the world, Georgia have dominated the Rugby Europe Championship – winning the second-tier tournament 17 times, including the last eight. This year, they hammered Switzerland (110-0), the Netherlands (40-7) and Spain (62-32) in the pool stage, then crushed Romania 43-5 in the semis and beat Spain again (46-28) in the final.

While the Lelos clearly need more Tests against tier-one nations, they were given a reality check by an Ireland side missing 16 players on tour with the British & Irish Lions.

Still, head coach Richard Cockerill insists they are a “work in progress”.

“We conceded two early tries and gave our opponents a big advantage,” said the former England hooker after the Ireland defeat. “There were errors in both defence and possession. But it’s in matches like these that we grow.”

Cockerill said key playmakers, halfbacks Vasil Lobzhanidze and Luka Matkava, were still getting back to full match sharpness.

“They haven’t had much game time recently, and they need minutes under the belt. Bringing on [Mikheil] Alania and [Tedo] Abzhandadze wouldn’t have fundamentally changed the game, but this is a national team and every selection is part of a longer-term process as we prepare for the World Cup.”

South Africa won the first clash against Georgia 46-19 at the 2003 World Cup in Sydney, with hooker John Smit captaining his country for the first time and debutant flank Schalk Burger scoring one of the Boks’ seven tries.

Their second meeting was a 40-9 win for the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld in 2021 – a warm-up for the British & Irish Lions series played behind closed doors due to lockdown restrictions.

That was Jacques Nienaber’s first Test as head coach, and saw Aphelele Fassi score off his first touch on debut, playing on the left wing.

The talented Sharks back also featured against Argentina later that year and earned a third cap against Wales in 2022, but was overlooked for the 2023 World Cup and only made his fourth Test appearance nearly two years later.

Fassi could start again for the Boks on Saturday, this time in his preferred position of fullback, as coach Rassie Erasmus continues to rotate his squad ahead of the Rugby Championship.

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Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images