Bulls coach on Pollard’s misses, areas to improve for Leinster
· Citizen
The Bulls need to work on their defence, discipline and fight at the breakdown, says coach Johan Ackermann, ahead of their United Rugby Championship (URC) final against Leinster in Dublin next week.
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The Bulls will return to South Africa following their nail-biting semifinal win over Glasgow Warriors on Saturday and enjoy a few days’ rest before preparing for their fourth URC final appearance.
It will be something of a repeat of last year’s final at the same venue, Croke Park, where Leinster romped home 32-7.
But the Bulls are on an eight-game winning streak in the URC and riding a wave of confidence after fighting back from 21-3 down away against Glasgow at Murrayfield Stadium.
Bulls adjust defence tactics
The Pretoria side lifted their defence, drew momentum from set-pieces and won the physical battle to score three unanswered tries while keeping their Scottish opponents scoreless in the second half.
The game went to the wire at 22-21 for the final minutes, as Handré Pollard missed three consecutive penalties that would have put the game to bed. In the end, the Bulls defended brilliantly and enacted a turnover at the death to seal the win.
Ackermann called it “one of the best victories I’ve had” because of the character the team showed in the comeback, and said it set up a “very special” final for him.
But he said Glasgow exploited their numerical advantage after Pollard (deliberate knock-on) and later Ruan Nortjé (collapsing a maul) were sent to the sin bin. That opened weaknesses that were already in their defence, before a half-time adjustment sorted them out.
“We adjusted a little bit on the short side, our defence, where they got a bit of reward,” Ackermann said.
“The biggest thing was for us to stay connected and to have a good tackle fight, and the second guy to slow the ball a bit down, and then we could have time to scan and make decisions.
“We had two yellow cards as well… they exploited it quite well at the back, so it’s something we’ll look at.”
‘Luckily, the kicks didn’t count in the end’
He said he and his assistant coaches were disappointed with some of the work at the breakdown, though he was reluctant to dwell on negatives.
When asked about Pollard’s kicking, with the Bok flyhalf slotting only three of his seven attempts, Ackermann said: “We can smile now. We got that one point more than them and that’s the thing.
“One game that he missed won’t make him a bad player. Luckily, the kicks didn’t count in the end.”
The coach said there was even a positive to Pollard’s three consecutive penalty misses, which kept Glasgow in their own half.