Bulls channel tough as teak Ackermann spirit in URC revival

SPOTLIGHT: When Johan Ackermann walked into Loftus Versfeld earlier this season, the Bulls were a side searching for direction. Months later, after one of the most turbulent campaigns of his coaching career, he has guided them into a home United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against Munster.

For a man whose rugby journey has been defined by resilience, reinvention, and endurance, it feels fitting.

Ackermann’s playing career alone reads like several careers rolled into one. He debuted for Northern Transvaal Under-20 at Loftus Versfeld in 1988 and, remarkably, played his final professional match on the same ground 20 years later for the Sharks against the Bulls.

In between came shoulder surgeries, knee operations, a serious neck injury, a doping ban, spells with multiple franchises and clubs across South Africa, England, and Italy, as well as three separate Springbok careers interrupted by long absences from the international game.

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#OPINION: @rugby365com contributor @jon_cardinelli dissects the South African teams’ title chances as the United Rugby Championship enters the play-offs. 👇👇#Stormers #Lions #Bulls #BULvMUN #STOvCAR #LEIvLIO #GLAvCON https://t.co/Og7DtEJwLX

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He was once the oldest Springbok in history at 37 before Victor Matfield and Schalk Brits eclipsed the mark.

Now, years after rebuilding the Lions into Super Rugby finalists and proving himself abroad with Gloucester and in Japan, Ackermann finds himself steering another proud South African franchise through adversity.

The Bulls’ 45-19 victory over Benetton on Saturday secured a sixth consecutive URC win and confirmed fourth place on the table, setting up a quarterfinal clash against Munster in Pretoria.

But the achievement cannot be separated from where the Bulls were earlier in the season.

At one stage, they lost seven matches in succession across competitions, forcing a coaching reshuffle and raising serious questions about whether their campaign was unravelling completely.

Instead, Ackermann and his staff slowly rebuilt confidence and belief inside the squad.

The Bulls ended the regular season with 12 wins from 18 matches – a remarkable turnaround considering the pressure that surrounded the group only a few months ago.

Ackermann admitted the significance of reaching a home quarterfinal was not lost on him.

“Grateful,” he said after the Benetton victory.

“There are a lot of people behind the scenes who believed in me and stood by me.

“And then the players. They stuck with the plan, the energy was always up, and they trained well, even though we had seven losses in a row.

“The belief was always there, even though we had to sort out a few things,” he told Rugby365.

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The veteran coach was careful not to overstate the achievement; however, fully aware that knockout rugby now brings a different level of pressure.

“You don’t want to get carried away because it’s only a quarterfinal,” Ackermann said.

“We could easily have missed out on it, and that would have been much harder to digest.”

Despite the strong finish to the league phase, Ackermann believes the Bulls still have significant areas to improve if they want to challenge for the title.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he admitted.

“There were soft moments and small mistakes that compounded pressure on ourselves. Those are the things we have to fix.”

The Bulls conceded two soft tries around half-time against Benetton, and Ackermann stressed that decision-making and execution will become even more important in knockout rugby.

“It’s our general skill, finishing and decision-making that we have to focus on,” he explained.

“You don’t want to give away 14 points through soft moments and poor decision-making.

“That’s the part we have to fix because, if there’s more pressure on the game, like in a knockout match, it becomes very difficult to recover momentum.”

For Ackermann, whose rugby life has rarely followed a smooth path, it is another chapter in a career built on surviving difficult moments and finding a way forward.