Boks can learn from beaten Bulls on how to handle the All Blacks: Ackermann

The Bulls got dumped 50-19 by the All Blacks on Saturday night, but coach Johan Ackermann believed they did enough to offer the Springboks a solid game plan for the first Test.

The first of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’s four international clashes will be contested at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Ackermann was pleased with the 19-26 second-half scoreline for his team, who are still early in their pre-season.

“The Springboks are match fit and there’s quality players,” he said after the match at Loftus Versfeld. “They’ve played a long time together and they’ve got flipping some of the best heads in the world putting a plan together.

“I think the Springboks will be well prepared.”

The visitors, who led 24-0 at halftime, threw the ball around with an almost carefree attitude from late in the first half, giving the crowd of nearly 31,000 a demonstration of their handling skills.

“The All Blacks had the scoreboard luxury tonight to try a few things from deep in their own half that I don’t think they’ll get away with against the Springboks.

“That’s the way they play sometimes, but they may find themselves a bit in trouble with that,” said Ackermann, who was also impressed with the way his team punched forward once they kept the ball in hand, close to the pack.

“I think the Springboks will see these opportunities, if you keep the ball in hand against the All Blacks, and I’m sure that they will look at the game and work on that.

“I feel that if [we were] a little bit more patient with the ball in hand tonight we could have finished a few opportunities and I think hopefully the Boks will take that.”

Springboks Elrigh Louw and Johan Grobbelaar, late inclusions in the Bulls team after being released from the national side for the tour match, played a hand in the Bulls’ fightback after they came onto the field after the break.

They would offer useful intelligence on New Zealand when they returned to the Springbok camp.

“I think it’s great for them to have a taste of the All Blacks and they now can take that knowledge back to the Boks.”

All Blacks skipper Codie Taylor, who was substituted at halftime, admitted the Boks were going to be a different proposition.

“I’m sure they’re going to be asking a lot more questions come next week … by no means are we the finished product, there’s going to be so much more we can work on and it’s going to be even tougher next week.”

But the visitors saw encouraging signs in their own game, which was a vast improvement on their tour-opener against the Stormers a little more than a week earlier.

“Fifty points against a very good Bulls side is a positive,” said coach David Rennie. “We played a team that was prepared to play today and really took it to us.

“I thought the set piece was really strong, especially the scrum,” added Rennie. “I thought from a discipline point of view, a lot better tonight.

“We created so many opportunities — 11 line breaks to one — so we probably left a few points out there which is a little frustrating, but can’t fault the effort,” added the coach, saying he expected the Boks to “come a lot harder defensively”.

“We’re probably less confident about Damian, but still think he’s a good chance to play on the weekend … The expectation is that all three of those guys will be available.

—  All Blacks coach Dave Rennie

“We know that the intensity level, the quality that we’re going to come up against next week is three, four, five-fold.

“But yeah, we’ve played reasonably well on tour and we know we need to up the ante … This certainly wasn’t our Test side tonight so there’ll be a number of changes.”

Rennie was hopeful wing Will Jordan, scrumhalf Cam Roigard and fullback Damian McKenzie would be fit for the first Test.

“Both Will and Cam got through a bit of training yesterday and we’re pretty confident they’re going to be right by next week …

“We’re probably less confident about Damian, but still think he’s a good chance to play on the weekend … The expectation is that all three of those guys will be available.”

Flyhalf Richie Mo’unga, who arrived late on Friday night, would not be considered for the first Test. “He’s already done a fair bit of study and we’ll spend the next week with him getting his head around our game.

“We won’t pick him in the first Test,” Rennie said, adding he would probably play in the last tour match against the Lions on August 25.