Bulls Coach Johan Ackermann Taking No Chances Against Munster | URC Quarterfinal

The team is starting 15 and now 3 on the bench. If you look at some of the other teams, there are a lot of injuries. You must be very happy with this team or this 23 that you chose for this match. Very privileged and grateful that we could have picked as strong as possible team. Obviously, two players that have played a big part in the season, David Krill and Sebastian De Klerk, are not available.

But if you take two out of the whole squad, we are really blessed and just grateful that we are in this position. Cheswold, the first time they played here, he scored at Braham, try against Munster. Is he available? Cheswold will be ready next week. He was just a few days short of being ready.

we can progress then he'll come in contention for next week. Nicholas? Last time I was here in March it was a tight game and they fought back I think three times when you guys were two scores ahead. Do you expect another tight contest against it? For my nerve sake not Nicholas but that is what playoffs is you know.

It's on the day and everybody knows it. You don't have to score four tries and there's a little bit more pressure on and mistakes do tend to cost you. So we know it's going to be a big challenge. Munster has proven themselves over the years that they are a quality team and they've shown that they can travel well. So we expect that but hopefully we can put in a performance that will be good enough.

Last time you were playing Geek's Monster as well, you did a lot of preparation and stuff and it went well and then it didn't go well and ended quite tightly. How much attention did you pay to that game when you were planning for this game? Or was it a completely different game with Nokia? We looked at that and we looked at areas where we can improve, but we also know that there's not much you can take out of their last performances. They showed a lot of character against the Lions.

alliance they had to win to get into the top eight and that's what we expect so we we've we've put a you know just a new fresh mindset on everything to reset ourselves and know that this is only a one one shot opportunity so um we didn't dwell too much we obviously looked at at the strengths and also looked at maybe areas we can attack and hopefully the plan will work the pressure of a playoff um for you as a coach first time in a long time and um you know the bulls being the team that they are how do you approach the players how do you get their mindsets you know to to adjust it it's not just another game this is a big game but without putting too much pressure on them yeah no i mean we there's that fine balance um in between you know adding pressure to the game that that everybody knows is a is already big and you know the consequence if you don't win and still go and enjoy your day, your game. Ultimately, I said to the players, your identity can't be in Rappi alone. There's a bigger picture in life than that. And that can't define you because, like I said, if you're only going to be smiling when you win and upset with the world when you lose, you're probably going to have a tough career. So we're not going to add pressure to the whole game.

There's a lot of things that we know we're playing for and ultimately it's on the day, 80 minutes game and we can only control our mindset and we can control our plan. And if everybody, and I know everybody has bought into the plan and on the day we just have to match what they're going to bring because obviously we know they're going to bring a lot of intensity and they're going to bring a lot of character and we just have to do the same game sometimes. It's also good for our players, you know, to enjoy that little bit of cooler weather and we can play at the speed we want to play at. So, you know, it's going to be for both teams there, we're probably a little bit more accustomed to the altitude. But, you know, I'm not a big believer that a stadium or altitude does it for you.

You have to put out the performance there on the day I want to talk to you about the heat specifically not the altitude Because Leinster made a big spiel about the fact that it was so hot in Bilbao and they couldn handle it And that was kind of the reason that they gave it for losing it Leinster is just down the road from Leinster. Is the heat maybe going to be more of a factor? Is it going to be affecting them more than the altitude? It's a combination, I think. Like I said, if you play in Durban and the humidity and the heat is there, is there, it's obviously worse than when you play now in Durban or when it's a little bit cooler.

I think it's the same with the altitude. The heat does push you a little bit more in the ground and and that makes you even feel, think about probably a little bit more about the altitude. But you know, Europe at the moment has got a heat wave at Ireland at 27, 28 degrees weather the last couple of weeks. So I think Munster, I don't think that will be a factor. I think ultimately it's how we're going to enforce our plan on today.

Coach, just with the ups and downs of the season, how much of that do you take in the focus going into tomorrow's game? Or is it a fresh start looking at it as a playoff and if we can find it? Yeah, I mean between, you know, team one and team eight, I believe any team can beat any team on the day. If you just look at the points difference, how small it was, the lock positions, and Again, every playoff game that I was involved in and finals, you know, there's sometimes a few things that have to go your way. If it's maybe a ball bouncing or an intercept try or something happened and if it goes against you then obviously it's a massive fight during the game.

If it goes for you then obviously it's in your favour and it works well. The ups and downs in the season, I think we've learned the lessons from that. We know we're going to have to be clinical tomorrow. And ultimately, the last few games to us was almost like knockouts. You know, if we didn't win, we wouldn't have sat here and had this opportunity to play in the quarters.

So I'm first of all grateful and second of all proud of the players, how they responded since January and got us here. And now hopefully we can, you know, put everything behind us and put in a performance, a really good performance to make sure we can stay in the hunt for the trophy. But make no illusion we play a team that's good. They have a rich history in the URC. They won the cup and they are a quality team.

So it's not just a question of running on and we're going to have to work hard for that. Again, talking about the wings, Kirtley on the right wing and Stravino and he was injured just the other day. That was quite a severe finger injury. Is he back up to scratch? And why are those two in those two positions?

Yeah, he's fully ready obviously. Like any injury you look after by taping it a bit, but he's trained well. I think it's just a good combination. In Sergio and in Kirtley you've got all this, you know, you've got this X-factor and a rough stepping and in Stravini you've got a power runner. So it's just a bit of combinations on how we see the wingers and then Sergio gives us the luxury to go left or right.

And that's why it's a good position to end, taking that Sebastian and obviously Jezbo was not available. We've got three experienced wingers and each one brings his own skill set. So hopefully they'll complement each other tomorrow. Good luck. Thanks.

So. Now because the balls history in this competition has almost unfortunately been defined by falling short which is sort of a missing piece of the puzzle to be able to get over the line. You were brought in to address that. Obviously it's been an incredibly rough season, but what I want to ask is going into these these knockout stages, do you feel like, do you believe you've you've got that missing piece of that puzzle and have you identified what it is? So it's a difficult one because, you know, I've played in a lot of finals and haven't won them.

And so I'm also searching for that missing puzzle. The only one I won was the, what's it known, it was in Japan. But you know when I went to Gloucester we played in the Challenge Cup final and we lost in the last minute when Kaurav kicked the penalty over And you look back at the game and we were leading half time so comfortably And then second half they start and then, you know, it's that's probably one of those things. We scored a try and it was disallowed and it's as clear as daylight that, you know, it was a try. So, and you lose both one point and you look back at it and then you say, what was the missing puzzle?

You know, how did we, let this one slip and then you search deep and you look for answers. And that's what I mean with playoff games. First of all, we believe in the team and we believe in the players and in the plan. But ultimately tomorrow, from the start and the whistle till the end, there's numerous things that can influence the game. And hopefully we'll be on the right side of everything.

First of all, the way we want to play some decisions, maybe, or whatever. So it's a difficult one to put your finger on what is that missing link if you don't win a final. You know, Springboks won a World Cup with three one-pointers. Quarter-final, one-point, semi-final, one-pointer, final. So each of those three teams will say what was the missing link.

But it was maybe one decision, one steal from Quagga. one scum against England. And that's why I say we just have to be accurate tomorrow before we can worry about the semi-final or the final and keep searching. Obviously from a coaching point of view, you always think about how you can prepare the team. Your routine, you're building up to the game this week.

We felt we balanced it in the way we thought is the best to get that balance between not taking off the food completely off the pedal, but still keeping them fresh. You know, timings were more or less the same on the training field and so on. So you don't want to, you know, digest everything in detail. And that's why I say, I think ultimately, the players must feel comfortable, well-prepared. And then you need your big players to stand up.

That's it. And if I say big players, I know you look, there's a lot of experience, but there's always a player that has something special on the day and hopefully we've got a couple of them. I think you got a guy that kept the one. Yeah, that helps. But obviously you must put yourself in that position to get that penalty, like against Scarlett.

The forwards got the scrum penalty, they got the Moore penalty and they put Hunter in that position and credit to him. It's the same with every game. If you create those opportunities you have to finish there. Simon. Thanks.

Johan, you might have mentioned that already with what you've just mentioned and touched on. It's a quarter final and obviously it must tick some kind of a box for you as a coach and for you as a team. Do you think that you've you're starting to achieve what you wanted with the outset of the season? Obviously, there's a lot of work to be done. That's generally the answer that you guys would say.

But give us a bit of an insight in Johan's head as far as what he thinks about this season thus far. There's two things, Simon. The first thing is I'm proud of how we got together as a group. and after a turmoil start and a tough start and a lot of things I probably didn't get right and things that we had to go through as a team and learning what UR Shea is all about from a South African point of view. And then it looked obviously a bit gray and grim halfway through the season.

And then the other flip is, you know, if you said to me in December, end of December, do you take a quarter-final at home, 21 points behind the Stormers, way down the lock, you would probably say yes. And for that part, I'm grateful. But then I know the supporters won't be happy if we don't progress probably all the way to the final because they would say, well, it's a failure of season. But the reality is what I've learned in this URC when we played Scarlett that was at the bottom, when we played Benetton that was at the bottom you know it so small margins So to get into a playoff there no guarantee nobody you not entitled to play in the playoffs nobody entitled to be the one of the best eight sides in this competition you have to work for it and and for that i'm proud you know so for me personally that is what i'm proud about um obviously it will be sweeter if we can go keep going especially you know yeah at home because i mean it's still in front of your own supporters um so hopefully we can we can do that but um that's why i say so it's not it's not the best season i acknowledge that but it i'm still proud of of just of the of how the players responded of the tough start. Yeah, Alex.

Kurt, just a word on your own looking at getting out for 150th. What a big milestone. Yeah, I mean, that's a massive milestone for any player to play 150 games for a union, and that's obviously excluding probably a lot of Springbok games and other games, but yeah, just the quality of a man. I can see why he's played 150 matches, because you know, he's a team player and a player that any coach I'm sure will pick just because of his character and his work ethic and the way he conducts himself on and off the field and he's obviously a leader for us and he's proven his leadership skills as well, but for me, it's Rappi, the off the field part is almost more important than the on the field and And that's where I really have got a lot of respect for Juan. So congratulations just for him.

And again, he's the first one I want to acknowledge that it can only be a good day if we focus on what we have to achieve and then we can celebrate that. And then just to the team now, I mean, it would feel like in the last 10 games you won nine. It would feel almost like an analogy you would be, as an Olympic runner, you want to kind of start peaking at the right time. Does it feel that way for you that your team is really peaking at the right time? Yeah, we've been peaking because we obviously got the wins and it brings a bit of confidence and so on.

But I mean, if you look at the 10 games overall, we were not playing that great for 80 minutes, you know, so there is room for improvement. But again, you have to be grateful and privileged to get the wins, the way the players grind it out. And when they needed to, we scored. And when we needed to, we got the penalties to put us in that position. So that's the part that hopefully we can tap in now in the playoffs.

Because we know in playoff games, there's a lot of momentum swings. You're not going to dominate for the whole 80 minutes probably. but that's obviously great if you do. But in that 80 minutes, when you get those small opportunities, and I think that's what we learn, and hopefully we can keep doing that. Coach, a number of players that would have missed out on Springbok's selection due to injury and no selection, like, for example, Ambrose.

Has that been a factor in the motivation for, not only the final, I'm sure, but has that been a factor in motivating the guys? No, we're not really talking about that. I think we are for the Vodokon balls and I believe personal goals, you can only achieve that if the team performs well. It puts everybody a bit more in the aim of their goals. So we haven't used that.

For me, that's a personal thing. So if you start of the season, got your goals that you want to achieve, Obviously, you need to put in the hard work, but collectively, we as a team will have certain goals and certain way and culture and values that we want to stand by. And if that helps you on your personal goals, great. But we don't use outside factors as motivation. It's more about us and what's your God-filling purpose on life and see if you can live that rather.

instead of just chasing your own personal goals.

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