Ackermann's plan for 'impossible' URC dream
SPOTLIGHT: Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann outlined his plans in his chase for a maiden United Rugby Championship title this season.
The Bulls have been bridesmaids on three occasions in the URC, losing the inaugural Final to the Stormers in Cape Town, before falling short to Glasgow Warriors at home two seasons later, and away to Leinster in Dublin last year.
Their quest for glory is much tougher now. Currently in eighth position, the Bulls will have to pull out all the stops to collect maximum points in their next four fixtures, starting with the Dragons this weekend away from home.
Speaking on the Megafoon Rugby Podcast, Ackermann said he is wary that his team could be in danger should they drop a single match and that the Bulls will treat each match as a knockout game.
He also highlighted the threats the Dragons pose and warned that they’re a dangerous side, irrespective of their log position.
“Everyone knows the importance of the upcoming [URC] matches now that we’re out of the Champions Cup.
“The reality is that it [the results] can go one way or the other. If you don’t get the results, there will be a danger of missing out on the play-offs, which will be catastrophic.
“The first thing is to win them [the upcoming matches] and get the results to have your destiny in your own hands.
“We have to focus on the Dragons first. For one, they pushed the Stormers and Lions before defeating Stade Francais in the [Challenge Cup] to advance to the quarterfinals.
“They’re not a bad team. They’re not a team where you can go out onto the field and collect five points and go.
“They’re a good team. We’ve made plans for how we want to play against them, and if you go through their stats, there are a lot of good things they do.
“They’re a challenging side, and we spoke about the breakdown, how they contest it and their maul stopping ability as well as their kicking game.
“There are many good things they do, so we need to be at our best. We can’t underestimate them based on where they are on the log.”
Continues below…
Ackermann admitted that their home defeat to the Stormers made the road much tougher for the Bulls to reach a top-four position, but also said that they will have to travel to Europe to go all the way in the competition and break their URC Finals duck.
“Only then, you move on to the Scarlets [away] and the two Italian games [Zebre and Benetton] at Loftus.
“The reality is that the Stormers game hurt us a bit, being a home game, and it could’ve given us a bit of a buffer and given us more of a realistic chance of a top four finish.
“Now we have to rely on getting four bonus point wins, but the first thing for us is getting the win and playing accurate rugby instead of a high-risk game chasing bonus points.
“Teams like Glasgow and Leinster will be up there, and if you want to win this competition, you’ll have to do it away from home. That’s the reality.”
