Ackers praises Bulls’ defence, lineouts after Zebre thrashing
· Citizen
The Bulls can take confidence from their seven-try win over Zebre in Parma on Saturday, especially around their defence and lineout performance, said head coach Johan Ackermann.
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On the whole, it was a much better showing than their first away game in the United Rugby Championship last year, which they resoundly lost 28-7 against Ulster.
But the coach said there was still plenty room for improvement. Especially as they next face 2023 winners Munster in Limerick.
New signing, former Springbok Curwin Bosch was clinical off the tee. He slotted all four of his conversions before going off in the second half during the Bulls’ 47-13 win over Zebre.
‘He controlled the game well’
“It was his first game for the Bulls and he controlled the game well,” Ackermann said.
“He kicked very well out of hand and slotted all his goal kicks. He hasn’t played for a couple of weeks because of injury. So to come out under pressure in your first game is a good base to build from. Hopefully it will just get better as the season progresses.”
The only drawback to the game was prop Mornay Smith having to be replaced after twisting his ankle. The coach said he hoped it wasn’t serious.
“The biggest thing we take is the fact that we got away with the win. Last year is still in your memory… so we were always nervous,” Ackermann said.
“We haven’t played a lot of warm-up games. I think there were only about 40 minutes of game time in each player that played tonight, so we were a bit nervous that we might not be as good as we wanted to be.”
He said the Bulls couldn’t capitalise on early opportunities but were still able to keep Zebre out.
“For me, that was the positive. Against a tough opponent, in a tough place to come to after the travel, the guys showed a lot of fight in defence.”
Bulls lineouts looking strong, scrums need work
Ackermann was pleased with the lock combination of Ruan Vermaak and Reinhardt Ludwig – JF van Heerden replacing Vermaak in the 70th minute – after Springbok Ruan Nortjé signed to play in Japan this season.
“I think our line-outs were good. We won almost all our line-outs apart from one in the corner,” Ackermann said.
He added the tight five “put in a lot of hard yards” but the scrum had mixed results.
“That’s a big work-on for us. You’re not always going to have the luxury of a scoreboard like tonight, so that’s something we can really improve.”