These Lions won't be caged in
The men from Johannesburg will be hosting the defending champions, Western Province, in the Currie Cup Final at Ellis Park on Saturday.
On these occasions some teams tend to go ultra-conservative.
However, the Lions are determined not to abandon the gameplan that saw them race through the season unbeaten.
They will continue to use their solid set pieces – especially the powerful scrums – to set a platform from which to launch their dangerous backs.
"You do need the balance," Ackermann told rugby365 in an interview ahead of Saturday's big grand finale.
"You need to know when to play territory and when to increase the tempo.
"However, you can't change too much in five days.
"The players have been drilled in certain aspects of the game and to start fiddling and change that now will be dumb.
"Hopefully the players will play with that freedom and their decision-making is good."
Ackermann said, for his team, the only change from the league matches to the play-offs is that they can kick at goal if they have to.
"[In the league phases] we tended to think about the four tries [and a bonus point] before thinking about three points [a penalty kick at goal]," he told rugby365.
"Now you can take the three points and keep the scoreboard ticking over.
"I know people will say we always kicked for the corner [to set up a line-out] or we always did this.
"However, this is a Final.
"From a game-plan perspective, both teams play great rugby and both teams have a lot of dangerous players.
"Hopefully it will be an enjoyable Final."
By Jan de Koning
@King365ed
@rugby365com
