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Bulls swing the axe for faltering season

By Annemie Bester
Tuesday 23 Dec 2025

NEWS: The Bulls’ faltering season has claimed its first victims.

Lineout coach Andries Bekker and backline coach Chris Rossouw have been dismissed with immediate effect following the team’s struggles in the United Rugby Championship and Champions Cup.

When head coach Johan Ackermann took over, he opted to keep the management team of the Bulls as is without bringing in his preferred assistants.

He also indicated that he would like to get stuck in with the coaching, working side by side with the current crop of coaches he inherited from the former Bulls coach Jake White.

It left some people wondering who was doing what, as Ackermann is a renowned line-out specialist, the same task as that of Bekker.

In all likelihood, Ackermann will only need to appoint an attack coach to replace Rossouw.

These assistant coaches’ contracts were set to expire at the end of the season, and the plan was for Ackermann to work with them until then and decide whether he wanted to keep them on or not.

But since the former Lions and Gloucester coach has joined the Bulls, they have gone on a five-match losing streak, and the powers that be, in tandem with Ackermann, have decided enough is enough and that it is time to take action.

The axe came down on the two assistants.

The remaining assistant coaches are Werner Kruger, Jean Tiedt, Phiwe Nomlomo, and Kennedy Tsimba.

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