Ackers proud of players who seized chance against Lions

Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann said he was proud of the players who came into the side in place of several regulars and delivered big performances in their thumping 52–17 win over the Lions on Saturday.

The Bulls responded to their 43–33 defeat to the Johannesburg side at Loftus in November in emphatic style, winning eight tries to two at Ellis Park.

The Bulls had changed five in their backline, as the likes of Springboks Willie le Roux and Canan Moodie missed out. Regular captain Ruan Nortjé (lock) also missed out due to illness.

‘Making selection difficult’

But their replacements had strong performances. Scrumhalf Embrose Papier received strong praise from Ackermann for his “spot-on” kicking that gave the Bulls territory and opportunities through high balls.

Wing Stravino Jacobs competed for these contestables fiercely, while centre Harold Vorster made a huge impact with line-breaks, scoring two tries.

“I think those players grabbed the opportunity and now they are making selection difficult,” Ackermann said.

The coach said a Bulls jersey did not belong to any one player, and they had to earn it.

“When players start playing well, that makes it difficult from a selection point of view, regardless of who didn’t play. Credit to those players who stood up.”

Bulls find their balance vs Lions

Ackermann said the Bulls found a good balance between their kicking game and forward play.

“We wanted to mix it up today. There were one or two opportunities out wide as well but Handré [Pollard] felt the forwards did well and we just stuck to that.

“The first few aerial contests went our way and those are the fine margins of this game. In past games, the bounce didn’t go our way.”

He said it takes great effort to put in a good performance away from home. All the more against a full-strength Lions outfit.

“I am just pleased about the win. As I said in the last few weeks, we haven’t played 80 minutes. We made a lot of errors, silly mistakes. The back-to-back is costly, and today we made a few mistakes back-to-back, and luckily we didn’t concede.”

Ackermann said the Bulls exceeded their expectations going into half-time with a 26-3 lead.

“When we got it going, we really did well. I always felt that somewhere there we just had to stick the passes and get momentum going.”