Ackers: Greater Bulls squad rotated, tested and ticking boxes
· Citizen
Bulls coach Johan Ackermann said his decision to rotate his squad extensively against Zebre Parma paid dividends, and they are that much closer to having every player ready for the URC play-offs.
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Ackermann made 10 changes to a Bulls side that still went on to thrash Zebre 54-19 in an imperfect but strong showing at Loftus on Saturday.
The win lifted the Bulls from seventh to fourth on the United Rugby Championship table, with just one home match against Benetton next week before the quarter-finals at the end of the month.
‘They were good changes’
Marco van Staden started at hooker for the first time, after covering from the bench occasionally. Willie le Roux played at flyhalf for the first time in more than a year. Paul de Wet and Le Roux formed a brand new half-back pairing.
Jeandré Rudolph also played openside flanker for the first time.
Five players who normally play from the bench were given starting berths with much more game time than usual.
The result was a thumping of eight tries to three. Le Roux especially impressed by nailing seven conversions and scoring a try to complete a haul of 19 points.
“The game wasn’t always fluid but they were good changes,” Ackermann said. “They showed that guys needed the game time.
“Willie played 80 minutes for the first time in a while and Paul was pushed more out to the wing. There were a lot of good things from the combinations that haven’t been tested before, to get game time in.”
He said Canan Moodie returned from injury to put in a decent performance, scoring a try getting a bit sharper before the play-offs.
Bulls players prove themselves in both roles
The only negative was that Cheswill Jooste hurt his hamstring. A medical assessment would need to be done to see how serious it is.
“Apart from that, we got the victory and a lot of players who didn’t have a lot of rugby got good game time.”
The Bulls coach said the first 10 minutes went exactly according to plan with set-piece dominance. Although Zebre slowed the game down, the Bulls responded by finding the right balance between kicking and running.
They were not always clinical, and need to tidy up their decision-making and ball control in contact. But the fact that players who had been on the bench in the past played well from the start, and others now had experience coming off the bench, made them all the more prepared for knockout games.