Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann believes all things will work together for good. Picture: Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann once again lamented the mistakes made in his side’s third-round Champions Cup defeat to Bristol Bears, but said he and his team are keeping faith things will get better. The Bullslost 61-49at Loftus – the Pretoria union’s seventh defeat in a row in a season where they are steadily growing under pressure.
Their seven tries in a losing cause provided a bonus point that gives them a glimmer of hope of reaching the play-offs, should they beat Pau in their fourth and final pool game in France next Friday. If they lose again, they will either drop into the second-tier Challenge Cup round of 16, or out of European competition altogether, depending on permutations. The loss followed input from Springbok assistant coachFelix Jonesduring Bulls training earlier in the week.
Ackermann named 10 Springboks in his starting XV and once again had to speak of the many mistakes that were committed by some of his most senior players. “No player goes out to make a mistake and obviously there is a bit more expectation on your senior players,”the Bulls coachsaid. “But is it because they are playing harder and almost want to do stuff by themselves?
Read Full Article on The Citizen
[paywall]
I’m not sure but the reality is we are playing a lot of rugby against ourselves by the kind of mistakes we make.” He said giving away possession in their own half, due to two penalties and a kick-off that didn’t travel 10m, allowed Bristol to race to three tries in the first nine minutes. “Then you play a bit out of character because you start forcing offloads and things. At one stage, we got it right and then we gave away an intercept try because we forced things. The 30 missed tackles and 17 turnovers conceded were “just too high” an error rate for an accomplished team live Bristol not to capitalise on.
[/paywall]
