Ackerman bullish about talent, knows his side may be ‘undercooked’

New Bulls coach Johan Ackermann says he gets excited when he sees the commitment and talent of his charges, even though the team he puts out for their United Rugby Championship (URC) opener against Ospreys will probably be far from his first-choice combination.

Ackermann only gets his raft of current Springboks back for three weeks in December and the preseason preparations have been complicated by many niggling injuries.

“I'm still learning how the campaign runs and the players are still getting used to me,” the coach said ahead of Saturday's clash at Loftus Versfeld.

“I don't want to give Ospreys any extra hope, but I don't think we're at 100% yet. Not because of any lack of talent, but it's been challenging.

“Up until now we haven't been able to train with the starting XV all together. There have been constant niggles and players not being fully fit. We haven't had a full week with the lock or centre combinations we wanted.

“I'm confident we'll be competitive, but maybe we will be a bit undercooked. That's not the fault of the players, they've put in great training, a lot of effort, which makes me proud. It gets me excited because the talent is there, I believe in every player here and the biggest job is to get the team united.

“But for people who expect the same team that played in the URC final to play the Ospreys, that's not going to be the case. There are going to be some new faces and new combinations. 

“The detail is in, everyone is ready to play, and I'm more than 100% sure the players available are well prepared. But it's just getting those combinations to gel, which can take two or three games.

“But I said to the players the first game is all we are worrying about, it's the first step of the process. If you think too far ahead then you miss the small things.

“We have to go for both the URC and the Champions Cup, but the challenge is we only have the Springboks for three weeks. We can only assess when we get there at the end of November from a planning point of view and there are a lot of games before we get there.”

The ever-magnanimous Ackermann praised the work done with the players by his predecessor at the Bulls, Jake White.

“Some of the players learn very quickly and are easy to coach and everyone works hard. You can see they have been well-coached and there's no doubt the coach here before me put a lot of effort into that and credit must go to the rest of the staff too.

“Saturday's team will not necessarily be our strongest on paper, but rugby is all about opportunity and as coaches we want to help the players into it. I'm happy for players to bring different skill sets, as long as they are aligned with our system. I'm comfortable we have the players to slot in even without our Springboks.

“There's no reason we can't make a success of this season. It's great to start with two home matches even though that brings a little bit of pressure.

“In October we go on a very difficult tour and play three of the best teams away in Ulster, Connacht and Glasgow Warriors. But we will prepare as well as we can and make sure we work as hard as we can and enjoy what we do. You have to earn the right to win trophies.”