VIDEO: Bulls stay grounded in URC play-off chase
REACTION: The Bulls moved into play-off contention after their dominant display against the Sharks in Round 12 of the United Rugby Championship at Loftus Versfeld, but won’t get ahead of themselves, according to head coach Johan Ackermann.
Following a shaky start to their season, the Bulls won their opening home games against Ospreys and Leinster, respectively, before losing five of their next six games in the tournament.
Their overall losing run in all competitions stretched to seven consecutive games before victories away to Edinburgh and the Lions, and now at home against the Sharks saw a hat-trick of results that turned their fortunes around.
The Bulls mentor was thankful for his team’s recent run of form that got them back into the play-off conversation, but warned they should stay grounded and keep on improving as the season progresses.
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“One has to be grateful and appreciate the fact that we secured the victory,” Ackermann said.
“The fact that we didn’t have a good start to the season, we can’t get carried away.
“There’s a lot of work on’s, and we’ll have to keep building and get better as a team.
“We all know that in any competition, home games are important to win.
“We didn’t do well in the first part of the season, so this [result] is basically the next step.”
Ackermann admitted there was pressure to win against the Sharks to stay in touch at the top half of the URC table.
“The reality is, if we didn’t get the result, the pressure would mount [on us] massively because you’d have lost another home game and struggle to move up on the log.
“So for us it was important to keep in touch with everybody.
“Like I said a couple of weeks ago, if we look at ourselves and ensure we prepare well and give ourselves a chance, who knows where the season will go.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves; we’ll just take it week by week.”
The Bulls will face the Stormers in a rescheduled Round Eight fixture on March 14.
Ackermann said he would’ve liked to keep the momentum after the win against the Sharks, but isn’t overly worried about a dip in form, as their recent friendly against the Boland Cavaliers helped the whole squad get enough game time.
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“The week break is [disruptive], but luckily it’s the same for everybody.
“It’s not just for us where we have to sit back and watch the other teams play, and now we must almost restart again.
“That’s the positive, but it would’ve been nice if we could’ve kept the momentum as I said after the Lions game as well.
“That’s why I was so pleased to have played a friendly against Boland [Cavaliers] to get that hit out, and now we’ve got another game [under the belt].
“So it is [effectively] two matches we played, so hopefully this one [off] week won’t make a massive difference.”
Ackermann also had positive news on the injury front.
“In the long run, it appears that we got through the game well injury-wise, so we’re thankful for that.
“If Johan Grobbelaar is available to play against the Stormers, it will be good because we’ll have a massive block of games without any breaks, so let’s enjoy these breaks while we have them.”
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