‘Not good enough’: no excuses after Bulls and Sharks’ URC losses

There were no excuses from coaches Johan Ackermann and John Plumtree after the Bulls and Sharks barely troubled the scorers in falling to heavy defeats in their United Rugby Championship matches in Ireland at the weekend.

Both teams scored zero points in the second halves of their clashes as the Sharks went down 31-5 to defending champions Leinster in Dublin and the Bulls were hammered 28-7 by Ulster in Belfast.

“We are always hard on ourselves because we represent the Bulls brand and our supporters. We are not in this competition to lose, it was positive there was some fight, but it was not good enough and we must be better,” Ackermann said on Sunday en route to Galway, where they play another no-nonsense Irish side in Connacht on Friday.

“We couldn’t convert our 22m entries ― we had 11 and only scored once. There were a lot of turnovers and handling errors, and of Ulster’s four tries, three were soft so the defence needs to tighten up. There were too many little errors that cost us and we didn’t have tackle dominance, which has a ripple effect.

“But all families, all relationships, go through tough times. We are in it together and there is no easy way out. Do we like losing? No. So we have to fix the things we can and be accountable, you have to face life head-on. We can’t sit and sulk; South Africans have shown they can stand up again and hopefully we can do that,” Ackermann said.

It was agonising to watch classy Springboks like Handré Pollard, Canan Moodie, Marco van Staden, Willie le Roux, Cobus Wiese and Johan Grobbelaar battle to get even the basics right. Ackermann had warned before the match about the difficulties of integrating returning Springboks at short notice and, unlike the Stormers who romped to a fantastic 34-0 win over Scarlets in Llanelli, the Bulls looked very disconnected.

“It’s difficult to say the result would have been different if we had stuck to the same team. The Stormers integrated their Springboks and played well, so it’s a flip of the coin. We just did not play well enough on the night, but in the first half we created a lot of opportunities we just did not convert,” Ackermann said.

Plumtree admitted that his team were far too slow out of the blocks against a Leinster side that hit their straps from the outset in their first home game after starting the competition with two defeats in South Africa.

“It was a tough night for us. How you start against Leinster is massively important and they came out fast. We did not get a couple of contestable kicks, there were a few soft moments in defence and that allowed them to build scoreboard pressure.

“In the last 10 minutes of the first half we started to get back in the game and in the second half we tried our best, but their defence was too good and we didn’t fire enough shots. It was not good enough and we have a massive job now in the next two weeks at home to get back into the competition.

“It’s been a tough tour with a lot of disruptions, but we need to take collective responsibility to be better. We have to keep fighting hard and make sure we get it right,” Plumtree said.