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It has been a tough start to coaching life back in South Africa for Johan Ackermann, with his Bulls team struggling in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and Champions Cup competitions.
Ackermann was a celebrated coach when he left the country in 2017, having led the Lions to two straight Super Rugby finals (in 2016 and 2017), and picked up multiple SA coach of the year awards.
He then had relatively decent spells in charge of Gloucester in England, and Red Hurricanes and Urayasu D-Rocks in Japan, before his return to SA, which saw him consulting with the Junior Bok team, who went on to win the 2025 World Rugby U20 Championship.
He was then announced as head coach of the Bulls, taking over from Jake White, who had led the team to three United Rugby Championship (URC) finals in four seasons, which wasn’t deemed good enough by the bosses up top.
Big shoes
Ackermann thus came in with plenty of expectations and big shoes to fill, but has found the going tough over his first few months in the hot seat.
His tenure started sprightly enough, with two home URC wins, and three wins in his first four games, but since then things have gone off the rails with five straight defeats.
This includes two EPCR Champions Cup defeats, against Bordeaux Begles at home and Northampton Saints away, which has left the Bulls floundering at second bottom of their pool, as well as disappointing URC derby defeats against the Lions at Loftus and Sharks in Durban.
After the most recent loss, a 21-12 defeat to the Sharks at Kings Park over the past weekend, Ackermann tried to remain upbeat and assuage the frustrations of the supporters.
“We understand that our supporters will feel let down, but sometimes you go through struggles for a reason,” explained Ackermann.
“People who are struggling because they do not have work, and do not have food. They keep on going, so how can we give up? We won’t, and I felt our players fought to the end.
“I can’t fault the effort. The players kept fighting right to the end. But when you lose, there are things you have to fix. People want results, and that’s what we need to deliver. We have to learn quickly. The effort is there, now we need to turn pressure into points.”
Under pressure
Ackermann will undoubtedly be under pressure and will need to swiftly turn things around if he wants to give himself some breathing room over the rest of the season.
January is thus set to be a very important month for the union, as they face four tough matches that could have an impact on how their season plays out.
With them currently eighth on the URC log, they could soon find themselves outside of the playoff places and playing catch up over the rest of their campaign, while they could also be dumped completely out of the EPCR competition.
They kick things off in the new year with a tough North-South URC derby against the unbeaten high flying Stormers in Cape Town, where they will be clear underdogs.
Following that they are back in Champions Cup action, hosting the Bristol Bears, before traveling to France to play Section Paloise, and they will likely need two wins to stay in the competition, while one win should be enough to secure them a spot in the lower tier Challenge Cup knockouts.
They then close out January back in the URC over in Scotland where they will take on Edinburgh, and the Bulls will need to try to win at least two or three of those four matches to ease the pressure and get their season back on track.
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