Vodacom Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann has pulled no punches ahead of Saturday’s historic clash against the All Blacks at Loftus Versfeld, admitting his side will be "a little bit under-prepared" following a heavily disrupted and compressed pre-season.
The high-profile fixture has thrown a massive logistical curveball at the Pretoria-based franchise. Because the Bulls reached the United Rugby Championship (URC) final last season, their off-season window was drastically reduced compared to other domestic teams.
Faced with a mandatory player welfare policy that dictates a five-week rest period, Ackermann and his conditioning staff had to make a high-stakes executive decision to fast-track their return to full-contact rugby.
“We would probably only have just returned from the break,” Ackermann explained when addressing reporters this week regarding the tricky timing of the fixture.
“We have to give the guys a five-week break, but we could only give them three weeks; otherwise you can imagine if we gave them five weeks they would only have started rugby last week. Physically, we just wouldn’t be there. Conditioning is one thing, but your body after three weeks, four weeks, loses all of its contact ability."
Fearing the physical toll of putting unconditioned players straight into a collision-heavy match against international opposition, the coaching staff chose to compromise on rest to ensure safety.
“So we had to fast-track all of that. So if this game wasn’t there, we would probably have been in a conditioning phase only. We wouldn’t have touched much rugby and then would have started to only build up from the end of this month to the beginning of September," Ackermann revealed.
"It has put a bit of pressure on us, and the challenge is your preseason is the only time you’ve got to play around with stuff. You normally play a warm-up match or two, and you trial stuff, and you see if it works and you try to see which players are in form. Now, we are just picking on the squad that we’ve got left, with the odd guys who are unlucky not to be selected. It is a bit unfair, but that’s the hand we’ve got.”
Despite the heavily interrupted preparation, Ackermann explicitly refused to hide behind excuses. Instead, he intends to treat the 80 minutes against New Zealand as a trial by fire to expand the Bulls' tactical playbook ahead of the upcoming URC season.
“I think, to be honest, it's a great occasion, but we will definitely be a little bit under-prepared from where we want to be," Ackermann candidly stated. "Obviously, we're building up to the URC, and that's still a few weeks away, so we don't want to peak now. So therefore, I think we're trying some new stuff, and we're trying to expand on our game from last season."
He acknowledged that trying unpolished tactical shapes against the multi-time world champions carries an immense risk of being severely punished on the scoreboard.
“So if we can see some of those signs, that will probably be the first thing. It will be a tough ask to play against the international side for 80 minutes. It's not to use an excuse, but the fact that we went to the finals, we had less time to prepare than the other franchises," he added.
“And therefore, with a few things we did, we can implement it. This will be a massive test because you're going to do it not against a warm-up game, against somebody where you can trial and error; you do it against one of the best sides in the world, if you get it wrong, they can punish you. But that's why we just want to embrace the occasion and embrace this.”
While a handful of new signings and Currie Cup stars are unavailable, Ackermann promised to field the most powerful squad at his disposal, relying heavily on established stalwarts to steer the ship.
“We’re going to go as strong as we can,” Ackermann vowed. “Barring the Springboks who aren’t available and Akker van der Merwe, who is injured, and Sebastian de Klerk, who’s injured, all the other names that are available will play."
“So even the new guys who joined us, obviously there are a few guys that will still come like Luan Giliomee and Sango Xamlashe and Dylan Maart, but they’re with their Currie Cup teams and so on. But all the other names and the regulars like Harold Vorster and Stedman Gans will be out there.”
The All Blacks arrive at Loftus having already secured comfortable tour wins over the DHL Stormers and Hollywoodbets Sharks. However, Ackermann urged his team not to judge New Zealand on those earlier performances, warning that the visitors will bring a completely different beast to Pretoria with their Test season just a week away.
“I think they're just going to get better and better,” Ackermann noted, dismissing the idea that the All Blacks' earlier tour matches were a true reflection of their collective strength.
“So maybe they're a little bit individualistic at the moment where they're fighting for those spots. So you have to take that into account. It is a change of environment. It is a change of travelling guys getting used to playing in South Africa. So in a sense, we don't want to read too much into that Stormers game."
“And we expect that they're going to probably come with a test match mentality on Saturday because it's a week before the first test. Ultimately, I mean, we just want to see if we can get a bit of reward for what we tried to practice in these last couple of weeks. As I said, the time was a bit against us to really put it in place like we wanted.”