Wilco Louw Returns for the Bulls | Johan Ackermann Team Announcement

John, first thing that caught my eye was John Rudolf number 23. I just want to apologize if the signal sometimes is not great because the Wi-Fi, I'm in my room and sometimes the Wi-Fi is not that strong. So John is number 23 purely out of a jersey thing. So, yeah, it's just the way the jerseys work out. So it's nothing other than that reason.

And then Wilco Lowe, obviously, back there. It's a big thing. We know what's been happening there. How's his mindset and everything? Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, Wilco had his challenges now, his personal things.

But, you know, he's back in the group now for a week. And it's good to see him. And we know what he's capable of. obviously hasn't played for a while, so we'll see how long he will go. But he's in good spirit at the moment, and it's good to have him back.

Once again, you've picked basically your strongest side. The next weekend, next week, coming up, has that played a role in the fact that you continue playing your strongest side to make sure you've got that momentum and cohesion? Yeah, obviously the fact that we lost against Glasgow, Envia, and then had that week off before we played, the Dragons was an opportunity to freshen up the guys and then play two games and then next week is an off week again because it's Europe games again. So we feel that nobody's really overplayed on minutes maybe, but not continuously, you know, seven, eight, nine games. And then that's the one reason.

The second and probably the biggest reason is if you look at Scarlett, you know, Scarlet is a very good team and again, you know, if one thing because they're not on the top half of the lock doesn't make them a good team you got it totally wrong look at the quality they've got on the field and they haven't you know, they haven't been outplayed by any team this season and could have won a lot of games with small margins, not a lot of points So they, and also if you analyze them, you know, there's a lot of quality. They're one of the highest sides on scoring tries when they get into your 22. Good set piece, a lot of X-Factor players. So we need to be at our best, first of all. And second of all, you know, we need to pick the strongest side possible.

This last question, sorry, Kourvis. The Boots have never won in Klinekli, if you have pronounced it correctly, against Scarlet. Does that play a role here? I mean, you want to set the record straight? Yeah, I mean, ultimately, NBA is not something we focused on or talked about.

But the reality is we know where we are in the season and we know the importance of the game. And if we want to progress in this competition. So I think that's probably the biggest reality is that we, you know, we have to win to stay involved in this competition. and if we had to play them at any place doesn matter where it can be you know at Loftus it can be in a neutral venue it can be at home we need we need to get a result if we want to stay in the hunt and therefore we didn't put too much focus on on that fact just it's a it's a big challenge for us and we have to take it head on and the fact that it's at a place where we haven't done it you know it will be Obviously a good one if we can. Good luck.

Thank you. Thanks so much, Corbus. Thank you, Clinton. Hello, Akers. Corbus.

Akers, you have been introduced to the past week's best days to the captain's beard that Marcel Kutzee played. We saw him in the past week. He has seen him on the list of experienced captain's in the top five. He has been in the top five. He has been in the top five.

in terms of his leadership and the type of rugby that he plays in the stadium in his loop this must be very important for the Span for all the given where he is in the competition and where the every single team is in the competition Yes, look, I have a lot of respect as I said, for Marcel, you know for him as a player, but more than a man and the type of man that he is, and the man that he is. He was in the last year one or two times what people have chosen to do, and the way he has it, and when he has the experience of Captain Kappoord, and he has the example of the type of man that he is, and he has the best to do it in the span of him, and he has the example of the way he has the example. and what is interesting, last week when we played the media it's just a big respect for what he as a player did and when he was in Alster so he had a good I want to say, a good name and not in the South-Africa but in the South-Sweets and it's nice to work but his own ability and his hard work and his ability to understand what is for me and that is what I make so special. And I am very happy, just to be captain of Ispan, is a very clear, and the fact that he is so long and so many fighting can be captain of Ispan, he is not just a lot of other things that can see, and then he must bring his hand how he lay and he gets it right. Thanks, thank you Akers, all of the best.

Thank you, Kogus. Thanks Brendan, your turn. Akers, morning. I might have missed it, but just on Kanan's injury, how serious is that? And, Sergil, what happened there?

Hi, Brendan. So, Sergil unfortunately failed one of his tests for the concussion, so he's fine now, but it was too late to make it the 7-8 turnaround, so he'll be fine by the next game, and then Kanan, we obviously treated him and started to test him from Tuesday, but yesterday with the run there was still a sign that it not 100 and again with where we are in the season it too high of a risk to push anything further and any worse than the injury So the fact that we've got next week off, hopefully it's not that serious that you will be ready when we play again. And then obviously last week after we spoke after the game, things sort of, the rest of the game started to go your way. I'm sure you guys were smiling with some of the results that happened later in the weekend. You've obviously got to do your job first, well, on Saturday night, but you're also hoping for a similar weekend that opens a few more doors in terms of the permutations?

Yeah, again, Brendan, you know, one can argue how it would have helped if the storm was won and so on, but, you know, the reality is we can't control the other teams who's going to do what. We're in that playoff position and if we want to stay there, we must look at ourselves and make sure we tick the box we need to tick and then everything else will work out as it must be worked out. So we really know it's a big challenge, the Scarlet's at home. We've been away for four weeks, so we've got that challenge as well, but the players is aware of that. then we we're confident that we're going to get a good day where we are for that last two games and then just finally from me given where you guys were early in the season and the seven losses in a row things have turned around you now obviously focus very much on the playoff places etc and finishing as high as possible is there a sense for you as coach that things are the puzzles coming together when you look at the players and the way the performances they're putting together at the right time of the season?

Yeah, again, Brendan, I think we're on the right track, but there's still a lot of, if you look at the games, there's still a lot of work to be done. You know, I mean, every game, no game will be perfect, but there's still things we can definitely do better and some decisions we make and so on. But the fact that we got consistency, a little bit more consistency in selection and, you know, obviously it didn't help that we got a few injuries over the last couple of weeks in and out on the outside backs, but that's the reality of the game. Every team struggles with injuries. And, you know, I'm proud of the players, how they responded and, you know, how they got together and, you know, all the hard work of the coaches and the medical staff and everybody so that, you know, we can get the team out and perform.

And, you know, again, credit to the leaders, to the Roan Orkia and Elric and Marcel and Andre and, you know, all those guys that, you know, that buy into the plan and then we get the guys to play and hopefully, you know, like I said, we still haven't achieved anything or there's still a lot of permutations and we can just focus on what we can control and that is the Scarlet's, but it is good to see and hopefully we can, you know, in the future, don't put that much pressure on us But again, you know, we don't want to worry too much about the future now. Thanks. Good luck for the game. Thank you, Brendan. Thanks Nicholas Thanks Clinton Hi Alcus About a week ago you were talking about the injury issues in the back line and Cheswell and Kirti Orenser they were battling injuries, but they're back now.

Maybe you can just speak a bit about having them back, what kind of dynamic that's going to bring, I take it they're ready. Yeah. Yeah. No, thanks, Nicholas. Hi.

Obviously, as you read, they got injured in the Glasgow game. so luckily we had that week off after that when they played the quarterfinals and then we had last week the Dragons where they also didn't play so this is their third week so we're confident that from an injury point they both is fully fit to play obviously they haven't played now for two and a bit weeks but they both are naturally just blessed to be fit and so that won't be an issue. And like you said, you know, we lost Stravino and Sebastian, and then you got the quality of Kirtley, and then Cheswell coming in, and then they got injured. And then we had Kanan, we had luckily the guys like Kanan and Sergio, and those guys coming in, and then Kanan and Sergio now is out. But then those two come back.

So in a sense, it's worked well. You know, obviously Sebastian and Stravino has long-term injuries, but those injuries were short-term and they could have, you know, one go in, one go out. So hopefully if we get through tomorrow's game, well, you know, like I said earlier to Brendan, then we'll have Kanan and Sergio back by the time we play again. So then hopefully the talks will be good again. But yeah, it's just great to have the quality of those fingers coming in.

I know Cheswell is ill in his career, but I think he's proven that he can play at this level. And we understand that he's a young guy, there will be mistakes, but that's fine. There's enough senior players around him to support him. And then currently he's world class. He obviously was unlucky this year with not having continuous games.

he came back from the box with a sore knee and then had one or two niggles but if we can get a run in of games with him we know that we've seen in the past these players that's got this world class abilities, they don't need a lot of games to get back to their best so hopefully it will start tomorrow Thank you. Thank you.

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