VIDEO: Bulls' defensive horror show despite Bok coach's appearance
SPOTLIGHT: Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann says he will be forced to drop players if they continue to miss tackles as they did in Saturday’s 49-61 horror show against Bristol Bears.
There was a lot of optimism heading into the Champions Cup Round Three encounter, especially after they pushed the Stormers all the way in a bruising 8-13 defeat in the United Rugby Champions last weekend.
The Bulls also had Springbok assistant coach Felix Jones in their camp to focus on defence ahead of the Bristol clash, but it didn’t have the desired impact.
Ackermann’s side conceded nine tries in the match, and it started in a shocking opening period where 16 missed tackles saw the Bears race into a 21-0 lead, which became 28-7 by the end of the first quarter.
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“It’s a concern if you miss tackles and if a team scores the number of tries that Bristol scored,” said Ackermann.
“It is something that we are not proud of, and we felt it went up last week [against the Stormers], where we got more dominant hits, and we won many more collisions.
“We disappointed ourselves, especially in that first half [against Bristol]. We will definitely work on it.”
Ackermann added: “There will be a lot of opinions on what I mean when I say, ‘work on it’.
“Felix was here this week, we got his input, and we definitely tried to make it work. We won’t give up on it.
“Ultimately, the players will force my hand as well. If a player is consistently missing tackles, we need to start looking at bringing in players who are not going to miss those tackles.
“It’s definitely something we will keep working on.”
What will be even more concerning is the high error rate from some of his senior players, including Handre Pollard and Willie le Roux.
“No player goes out to make a mistake, and obviously, there is a bit more expectation on your senior players,” Ackermann explained.
“Is it because they are trying harder and harder and want to do stuff by themselves?
“The reality is we’re playing a lot of rugby against ourselves by the kind of mistakes we make – giving possession away, which results in pressure, especially in our own half.
“If you look at the start, there were two penalties and a kick-off that didn’t go 10 metres.
“That was in the first six minutes, and then suddenly you conceded 21 points. Then you are chasing the game, and then you start playing out of character because you start forcing offloads.
“At one stage, we got it right and then suddenly you give away intercept tries because you start forcing things.
“It is something we will have to address in our review, but the reality is that our error rate is just too high and our turnovers are just too high.”
By Warren Fortune & Jan de Koning
@rugby365com
