Johan Ackermann’s 1996 All Blacks heartbreak comes full circle

VIDEO: Getting the Bulls ready to face a touring New Zealand side has brought back a memory Johan Ackermann has carried with him for three decades – one of the biggest “what ifs” of his playing career.

Ackermann was 24 when his chance to face the All Blacks on home soil in 1996 was taken away by injury. Now, as Bulls coach, he finds himself preparing another South African team to take on New Zealand, and the coincidence has not been lost on him.

“I think, obviously, it’s different for the players, but for me, thinking about what I missed out on,” Ackermann said.

The memory goes back to Bloemfontein in 1996, when Ackermann injured his knee playing for the Springboks against Australia in the Tri-Nations. The injury ruled him out of the three-Test series against the All Blacks that followed.

It was a particularly cruel moment because Ackermann had been growing rapidly into his role in the Springbok pack under coach Andre Markgraaff.

Contemporary reports captured just how highly he was regarded. Markgraaff had identified the young lock as an increasingly important part of his plans, particularly alongside Mark Andrews in the second row, as South Africa prepared for what promised to be a bruising series against New Zealand.

The stakes were enormous.

Having just won the inaugural Tri-Nations (SANZAR) series, the All Blacks embarked on a gruelling three-Test tour of South Africa under coach John Hart and captain Sean Fitzpatrick. This tour offered the ultimate prize: the chance to win a Test series on South African soil for the very first time.

The injury list for the Springboks was mounting.

Andre Joubert and Henry Honiball were concerns, Balie Swart was battling concussion, and Ackermann was ruled out after damaging the cruciate ligaments in his knee.

Springbok captain Francois Pienaar summed up the seriousness of the injury in typically understated fashion: “When he goes down you know he’s hurt.”

Markgraaff was even more emphatic, describing Ackermann’s absence in stark terms: when “the big man” went down, he was “really broken”.

For Ackermann, however, the significance went beyond missing one game. He knew he was about to miss an entire series against the All Blacks – a series he had desperately wanted to play.

“It’s a bit of a sad reminder because the one thing I will always think about is, what if I didn’t get injured in my fourth Test a week before they played their last three-match Test series in 1996?” Ackermann said.

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“I got injured. And I knew that was the last time the All Blacks toured South Africa. And I knew we wanted to play in that. And then I got injured.”

Three decades later, that missed opportunity gives the current Bulls assignment an added personal resonance.

Ackermann is not, however, allowing the past to overshadow what lies ahead for his players. The Bulls now have the opportunity to create their own memories against an All Blacks side that arrives with the benefit of considerably more Test and international experience.

“Listen, we’re competitive, and we’re going to give them a run for their money, hopefully,” Ackermann said.

“That’s the aim. We don’t want to make it easy.”

He acknowledges that New Zealand may be the more battle-hardened side from a rugby perspective but believes the Bulls can make the contest uncomfortable if they execute their plans.

“They probably, from a rugby point of view, are more rugby battle-hardened,” he said. “We’re going to give it a bash.

“And we still believe if we do the things well, we can upset them and push them all the way.”

A sense of occasion accompanies that belief. Ackermann knows better than most that opportunities to face the All Blacks in South Africa cannot be taken for granted.

“It’s a great privilege to play against the All Blacks in any format,” he said. “If it is for the Barbarians, if it is for South Africa, if it is for the Bulls. This is an occasion that a lot of the players will remember forever.”

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His own memories of playing in New Zealand – in Super Rugby and at Test level – remain fond ones. But they are now intertwined with the memory of what he missed in 1996.

That is perhaps why Ackermann is so keen for his Bulls players to understand the magnitude of what awaits them.

“Hopefully, the players will realise what a great opportunity this is,” he said. “But it’s not about me now. It’s about them and the opportunity they get.”

For Ackermann, the circle has taken 30 years to close.

Now, from the coaches’ box rather than the second row, he gets another chance to be part of an occasion he once feared he would never experience again.

And his message to the players is simple: seize it, because these are the games that stay with you.

“It is stuff that you reflect on,” Ackermann said.

“And even more so for the Springboks. Because, you know, if you play this Test series, there are no guarantees you’re going to be in the next one when they come back to South Africa again.

“So it is a great experience.”