Gloucester's Ackermann not getting carried away

Fullback Jason Woodward scored the match-winning try at the death which ensured Ackermann's side walked away with a bonus-point victory at Kingsholm on the opening day of the new Premiership season.

For Ackermann, who joined from South African side the Lions, it was a memorable start to his career in England, but he is also remaining grounded.

"I probably couldn't ask for a better start and I'm grateful for that," Ackermann told reporters after the match (via gloucestershirelive.co.uk).

"We're all in the game to enjoy it so when we saw him go over we were all high-fiving and celebrating.

"That's why we play this game to experience the tense times in it but also enjoy the good times.

"You can’t take anything for granted but I'm so pleased with the guys, the character they showed and the effort that went into the game.

"We will enjoy the victory, but it's only week one so we definitely can’t get carried away."

Despite the victory, Ackermann felt there was a lot his side can improve on going forward.

"We just hung in there even sometimes with not a lot of possession we hung in there so the defence was good," said Ackermann.

"Our set phase I felt was good, I think there were two scrum penalties – one at the beginning and one at the end. I think our line-out was good.

"I think there were opportunities we didn’t use but in general I’m very pleased. It's nothing to do with tactics but just the effort and character that went in.

"You look at the game as a whole and it wasn’t the perfect game, there’s a list of work-ons for us to do but if we took 30 or 40 points tonight you have even more worries so it’s definitely a good base to build from and there was good stuff as well."

Source: gloucestershirelive.co.uk