Johan Ackermann said the Bulls need to rally after their tough start to the season, rather than point fingers. Picture: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann said the team are as frustrated as their fans after showing moments of brilliance and then leaking easy tries to the opposition at the beginning of their season. The Bulls lost their third game in a row on Saturday,falling 46-33 to Union Bordeaux Bèglesin their first Champions Cup pool match at Loftus after also losing 21-12 to Glasgow away and then 43-33 to the Lions at home, in the United Rugby Championship.
The Bordeaux defeat was especially hard to swallow after playing well in the first half, scoring five tries to lead 33-22 at the break. But they were shown two yellow cards in the second half and conceded 24 points without adding to the scoreboard. The defending champions Bordeaux ultimately scored seven tries at Loftus.
The Pretoria union have now conceded 34 tries, and 236 points in total, in seven games – almost 34 points on average per game. “We look so good at moments and then we look average,” theBulls coachsaid. “If you can score tries but you keep leaking tries, you’re not going to win.
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That’s the frustrating part. The inconsistency in all our areas is challenging at the moment.” He said he was “soul-searching” because he felt they had prepared well for the game, fought back after a strong Bordeaux start, and then “let it slip”. “Sometimes it is an individual mistake and sometimes it is a system mistake.
And it’s not consistent. It’s quality players who make the mistake and that’s the thing. You saw in the past they didn’t make those mistakes. “It must be frustrating for people outside because it’s frustrating for us.” Ackermann said the kind of errors the Bulls made was even more discouraging.
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