Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann says his said have plugged the gaps that saw them lose twice to Glasgow Warriors this season, ahead of their United Rugby Championship (URC) semifinal against the same side on Saturday (kick-off 3.30pm).
The teams meet at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh after a scheduling conflict saw the playoff move from Scotstoun, where the Scottish side beat the Bulls 21-12 in their URC match in October and 25-21 in their Champions Cup last-16 game in April.
In the first game, a penalty try was awarded to Glasgow for Francois Klopper being off his feet in a maul, though replays showed he wasn’t. Klopper was shown a yellow card, and Glasgow secured momentum with numerical supremacy, beating the Bulls’ defence repeatedly.
In the second game, the Bulls gave it their all in difficult conditions but could not finish the multitude of chances they created. Their defence was also leaky, they failed to kick the ball out once and didn’t handle restarts well.
All about cutting errors
“There were one or two defensive errors in the first game. We just didn’t exit well in the second game,” Ackermann said after naming his team on Friday.
“Every time we got points we knocked a kick… I think we knocked three kickoffs. And then we didn’t kick out and they got a line break and they got the winning penalty from that.”
He said a penalty to the Bulls would have made all the difference in the tight second game, but they let themselves down with errors.
“I think that’s what it’s all about [on Saturday] as well. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on everything. If you exit, how well do you exit? If you attack, how well do you look off the ball?
“They’ve got world-class back rowers, a full Scotland team, basically. They are a clinical side and if you give them easy entries into your half, like knocking on four kickoffs, they’re gonna probably get away with points if they get a scrum or a lineout in your 22.”
Bulls coach explains his changes
Ackermann said he had opted to retain Klopper in the starting XV despite Springbok star Wilco Louw returning from sickness, because of Klopper’s form.
The tighthead was key to the dominant scrum that secured three scrum turnovers against Munster in their quarter-final clash.
Meanwhile, Louw was one of five Springboks on the bench who would lift the game if needed.
Then, wing Stravino Jacobs was picked ahead of Junior Springbok star Cheswill Jooste, though the latter has returned from injury.
“The fact that Cheswell has had a great season as a young 19-year-old, and just jumped at every opportunity, was tough. But Stravino and Kurt-Lee (Arendse) played really well last week, and we felt we needed that experience.
“This is the kind of game that will probably be a little bit tighter and hopefully our selection will be validated.”
