From Seven Losses to a Home Quarterfinal | Johan Ackermann Post Match Press Conference

Nbya from the Stormers like a rugby pod. Well, we can make a plan. The invitation is right there. Coaches and players. Please, actually, I was going to ask you about that.

So, Jan, please, we want coaches and players together. Because we're being accused of being a Stormers pod at the moment anyway. Well done. I mean, it was a bit of one of those typical games where you had to just get it over the line. You could see the guys maybe not totally right, you know, mentally there.

mentally there, just want to get over it, not getting injured or anything like that. What was your take from the game? Yeah, again, hello, Envia. Obviously, myself and the whole coaching staff was a bit nervous about the game because I think they're a quality team. They've proven it over the season and over the years and they've got those X-Factor players out on the field and we knew that, you know, So it's going to be a challenge mainly because on the one side you expect to win.

I think everybody outside of us expect us to win. And then you've got them that is almost last game of the season. Before they dismantle, the coach is going away and everybody. And so they can throw the kitchen sink and then get a great win at Loftus for themselves. So it was a nervous factor, almost a bit of an unknown factor of how they're going to come out.

But we knew we had to be better and I thought, you know, that was the main focus to start well. And I thought we started well. That probably saved us because then they got, you know, we started to make silly mistakes. And like, you know, the comment you made where we looked like we're not there. And then suddenly it kept on swinging and at one stage it was only seven points.

And then, you know, the players, credit to the players, they find a way to then squeeze the opposition out. And they did that. So, yeah, I'm very grateful. I said now in the TV interview that, you know, I'm just thankful to the Lord and that we're blessed. If you think we're in December and we're now.

So I'm grateful. It wasn't pretty. there's a lot of work to be done. There's a lot of soft moments and decision-makings and things we have to improve, but if you ask me beforehand to win with that margin and take the five points and be in a home quarterfinal, I would have taken it. So yeah, I know there's a lot of work to be done and a lot of work, but again, the team finds that way and that's good.

Annamie? Johan, if you look back at the last few months since you've joined, it sometimes was very tough, you know, when you lost those few games and then the coaches left. And if you look back now and where you are now looking ahead, you know, what are your thoughts? How tough was it? Yeah, grateful and, you know, like I said, you know, it's all just, you know, a lot of people behind the scenes and you know your family and people you know believing in you and standing behind you and a lot of prayer and um and then the players you know they i told them now um you know they they stuck with the plan they came trained well every day even though we had like you mentioned seven losses in a row that energy was always up the belief was always there it was just obviously a few things we had to sort out and again you know you don't want to get carried away because um it's only a quarter final but you know we could have easily missed out on the quarter final and i think that would have been even harder to to digest but um yeah um it's again it's a lot of people um you know just doing so good work that I'm grateful for and most of all that you know I've said to the players it's a privilege what we do and it's a I'm just privileged to be involved with the Vodokong Bills and very grateful.

Thanks Ken. Johan, you mentioned the soft moments and Benetton closing to the seven points at one stage and and it was those two tries either side of half time. Do you feel maybe that the yellow card to Ben Upton actually, in a way, was a negative for the ball? Because both those tries, I mean, obviously, one man down, there's a bit more space for you guys. And both those tries came from little kicks, little tips, over the defensive line behind, trying to, I mean, were they trying to exploit the space of the extra man?

Because in both cases, you know, trying it from your own half, two and nine position lead to two trials The first one was just you know I probably don want to say too much about the first one But the second one was unnecessary, because the second one was definitely not the right decision. And that's the part that we have to fix. because the reality is, you know, if you get a momentum swing like that, a try before, after and after, after, normally it takes you a long time to get the momentum back, and we were fortunate that we could have get the momentum back by not concealing further, but it easily could have, you know, if there's much more pressure on the game, like let's say it's a knockout game, you probably don't want to give away 14 points through those half moments, and that decision making and that's the parts that I mentioned earlier that we have to fix you know and if we do decide that's the space and we go you know there's still 13 other guys that must react to that and I felt that's where we were not good we were not sharp early in this first half they won a few aerial kicks that they you know we were not sharp in our reaction and then only second half we look much better there so yeah it's those things that we have to fix. Questions? Ken, okay go.

Yeah and just before that when you guys scored, can you explain what went on there? I mean we were just bemused. I mean a yellow card to the scum half but then you were deemed to have knocked on in the same incident and then I mean basically you have to score that trial three times too. It felt like we were leading, but we were not leading. But we scored every time.

But no, I think that we got the scrum penalty, obviously, as the scrum went forward. And then they, you know, saw the knock come from Cameron after Emro scored. I think the only frustrating thing is that, you know, the trial is scored. then you get the minute for the kickoff or for the goal to kick, then you get the time that the guys walk to the halfway line and then only this side do you see a knock. So I can watch a try scored four times in 10 seconds and I'm sure the TMO has got the same technology.

So that's the frustrating thing that it takes so long to make a decision but luckily we had the penalty advantage and we had another opportunity. But, I mean, there was a carried over from them where Leinig catch the ball a step before the line, take it over the line, and then they get a goal line dropout. But then suddenly, you know, the demo doesn't work. So, again, you know, Wilco scrumming a guy all the way back to his own goal line. And, you know, so what I'm saying is just consistency.

If you see stuff, see it the whole time. I don't want to say were you frustrated with the officiating of the scrum, but were you frustrated with the scrum, the way the scrum went throughout the evening? Yeah, I felt it, second or specifically, it was inconsistent, but first off, you know, if that scrum is walking around, I will go. If that specific scrum is walking around, I don't want to see what walking around is. down is.

He's scrumming that guy all the way straight. Where will that guy go? He will obviously turn and go sideways because otherwise, Blocker will go right over him. So that was a bit frustrating. Obviously, there were free kicks and stuff that he gave.

We clearly had the dominance, so it was a bit frustrating. But obviously, we have to be better to adapt to what the referee's pitch is. And then I think, you know, that try that we scored that was deemed also a forward pass was, you know, maybe so-so. But we got the rough of the green last week where we felt we did pass forward and they allow it. So sometimes you win and sometimes you lose on those calls.

But I think tonight it was a bit gray, the scrum areas. We, not all of them, some of them were clear. You know, like in the first half, they got a penalty where Gerard was deemed to collapse. And, you know, if you look at it, technically that collapsed. But we hit so hard that Gerard lost his footing.

So sometimes I think it's a difficult one because referees can only blow the law where the empathy of their force going through and somebody slip maybe goes away. But again, it's stuff that we must be better at. So we just have to fix that Ruan and Keno came off kind of gingerly Are they okay Yeah, it is Niels. It is, you know, stuff that is sore. Ruan's got a little bit of an ankle twist and came a little bit shot on his shoulder, but hopefully with the week off they will be fine.

There's one or two other guys that also got a little bit injuries that we hopefully won't be that serious, but we'll only know by Monday. A little bit concerned about Cameron, but other than that, hopefully we got through it. In the warm-up, we saw Devin starting to limp suddenly, and we were wondering whether you're going to pull him off or not, but he played and looked fine. What happened there? So somebody stepped on his foot.

So he got through the minutes we played him. He's one of them that we have to scan on Monday and just see that it's not serious because his foot is obviously sore now. But in the assessment before the game, everybody and himself felt that he can't play. So that's why we didn't make a change. But he's a bit sore now, so we just have to make sure that there's no damage.

Just one last thing, the TV volume was turned down so we have no idea what the referee said there for some reason and we're not saying anything, I'm just saying that the mall seemed a bit, either defending and our own malls, the Bulls malls looked a little bit, not maybe what they should be, what are your feelings on that? Yeah, again, you know, I think we can look at ourselves first, there were times that we were, you know, half contest, half not contest and then you're always going to struggle, especially the try that they knocked the ball on the goal line. We were a bit in trouble there. And we kept making the same mistake, and then we had to fight quite hard. But second off, I think we fixed it quite well.

We stopped all the balls and they had to use the ball. We scored, I think, two or three more tries that went through. It wasn't like over and scored, but we got and then somebody scored. So it was good, but it's not clinical. It's not like we want it.

It's small little things that, you know, compounding. They also obviously had one or two things that they tried to stop it. So you're always going to get that. I was not, I felt the referee, I think, you know, maybe it was a bit messy, the more from both sides, but I felt, you know, that there was no call that concerned me really that something we if i felt he missed or that we didn't do um you know so it's definitely still a work on but we got the good thing about it is we got penalties or we got you know momentum from it or so on so it still stayed a positive uh you mentioned the malls now are there areas where you feel that you still not quite play off ready that you would like to focus on in the next two weeks? You see, I mean, I think, you know, a little bit of everything, like, you look at, you know, we turn over ball and then we, you know, we knock it all.

We've got a good carry by Cameron and then we pass it to Kloppies and we knock it, you know, so, and then we put ourselves under pressure, not with the play that we wanted to play out of our 22, the fact that we knock a simple ball that is in your hands you know, Mopilo throwing the ball from a kickoff pick and go and think Kanan is there and then the other one offload out to the touchline. So there was times that we turned over ball or had momentum and then it's an easy pass and then we will throw a bad pass to somebody. So it's just our general skill and finishing and decision making so I think that we have to focus on but obviously we'll the boys will have a bit of time off now refresh because there's the springbok alignment game so we haven't got the whole group to try now and then we'll put a plan in place once we know who we play and the cluster jones yeah on that uh it's the boc alignment camp and i think you said this week the other guys will be spending time at home with their families and then you'll be back in training yeah but i imagine that team is is full of confidence after this win? How big is it for the players and how big is the psychological advantage of a home quarterfinal? Yeah, I think, you know, obviously we know that it's always nice to play at home, so that's, you know, we know we can get at least this one game at home and hopefully we can make an advantage and use it to an advantage.

But yeah, I think the confidence that we got is just that we We grounded out some games the last couple of weeks and months you know we could have gone the other way and we found a way every time to get back But it still not pretty and it still not you know 80 minutes So there still a lot of work to be done. And I'm just grateful, you know, like I said, this is a privilege to be part of something you love and to call it your job. And, you know, that, you know, a lot of people behind the scenes do a lot of good things and one is grateful to be part of this and and it's just you know in my i said way back when when we were in that in the hole of losing losing losing i said you know you have to you have to be rooted in something for each person is different for mine it's my faith and i just want to thank the lord for for being faithful and and that we can be in this opportunity but it doesn't matter, you know, it's again, it's just the opportunity to go further, but a lot of things must happen. I know you don't look at the table ever, but... Only where we are.

Do you have a preference? I did a terrible calculation where I estimated who might win, and I came up with Munster here again and that was a difficult game for you. Do you guys have a preference of you in play? Not really. Obviously, we're as high as we can be.

That's what we're with help. Fourth and now we must play. We know it's either Lions or Munster. That's what we know. And we'll see tonight who it's going to be.

If it was next week, it probably wouldn't have mattered much because the Lions would have travelled back and it probably would have helped us. But because it's the week after, you know, everybody will probably say Munster because they have to travel, but they're a quality side and they've got a lot of good internationals that, you know, and it was a tough game against them at Loftus. So, again, you know, then we know the Lions as beaten as you are. So, whoever comes, we just have to be better than the last two weeks. I'm just grateful for the wins, but I know that we have to be better than what we were.

Are we happy? Ken. Sorry, just one more, Yannou. Just on the soft mistakes, and you mentioned passes going astray and that's something. Do you feel it's lack of concentration in those moments?

or do you feel maybe that the guy is actually trying too hard? Yeah, it's just execution again. I think, you know, myself and Neil, we want players to have a go and we will never fault a player for trying. But then you must, you know, obviously make sure that you execute. And, you know, if you think about the try before half-time when Polly chipped it for Willy over the line was in acres of space.

The ball could have easily jumped into Willy's hands and then we scored an 80 minute try and everybody jumps up and shout and say, you know, great decision. But the ball bounced over their heads, the Benetton guy gets the ball, we miss a tackle and then they go and score. So the reality is what do you learn from that and then how do you fix it? Because you don't want to take away that opportunity from the player if the space is there that's the way better than defend it and they gave you that space so um you know so yes the next time hopefully the ball bounce your way but if it doesn't again there's this there's each guy has got a responsibility after that and that's the parts we have to fix um and same with the passes um there's passes that um we we kick chip kicked or we try to kick down the line, but then we fall against two or three against one. So next time, hopefully the players will pass it instead of kick it and vice versa.

If they three on three, hopefully we can put the kick through and put pressure on them. So it's all about execution. You know, Sergio tried to chip kick in the tackle and they got it and they run with it. So maybe, you know, if he half a yard earlier it goes over his head or maybe don't chip it and make a ruck and we can play another phase. So that's why I say it's just execution.

I don't think it's a big thing, but obviously if you play playoffs, you don't have to score four tries and hopefully our decision making will then be a bit better.

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