Despite a 34-31 thriller against Munster, the Bulls boss is calling time on "charitable" errors. With Handré Pollard findng his range and Embrose Papier in world-class form, the hunt for the top eight intensifies. Photo: Backpagepix
Image: Backpagepix
Bulls coach Johan Ackermann says his team’s charity to the opposition in not taking gift-wrapped opportunities has to stop.
The Bulls narrowly escaped losing to a resurgent Munster on Saturday. The Irishmen outscored the Bulls five tries to four in their 34-31 defeat, and the Bulls had Handre Pollard’s deadly boot to thank for the win. The Bulls banked five log points and have moved up from eighth to seventh, but their old malady of making life difficult for themselves continues.
“We could have put them away on several occasions, but we didn’t purely because of execution and errors such as knock-ons and other basic errors,” he said.
“As a team, we create opportunities and then we just don’t finish them. That’s the part we keep reviewing and working on, week after week.
“We left a lot of points out there. There were two or three big moments where we should have scored, and we didn’t.”
Ackermann added that while individual brilliance is hugely welcomed, the team in general has to brush up on opportunity-taking.
Embrose Papier scored two sensational solo tries and Cheswill Jooste nailed a beauty of his own.
“Every team has special players who can do something out of nothing. Embrose showed it —when he gets space, he’s dangerous — and the same with Cheswill. But as a team, we create opportunities and then we don’t finish them. We must sort this out.”
Munster had their Ireland half-backs Craig Casey and Jack Crowley back and were a different proposition to the side that lost heavily to the Sharks. The pair’s precise kicking game caught the Bulls out on occasions.
“Where we didn’t do well was when they kicked behind us,” Ackerman agreed. “There was a bit of miscommunication and there were times we lost the aerial contest.
Some of the balls we dropped were easy to catch, and we lost them. We put pressure on ourselves. But for me, it’s more the fact that we give soft penalties away. Then they kick it down and you have to defend, and then you knock it on when you do get the turnover.
“It’s those missed opportunities. We had a lot of turnovers that we could have turned into really good tries or at least good field position, and we don’t utilise that.”
It was telling that the Bulls switched to Pollard kicking penalties to the posts rather than to the corner because they were battling to score tries.
Pollard kicked two long-range penalties in the second half to secure the spoils.
“It was the players’ decision,” Ackermann explained of the change to going for posts.
“If it didn’t work, people would say we should have gone to the corner. But if you look at the result, it was crucial — it built up a 12-point lead. And with a kicker like Handré, he’s going to kick more over than he misses.”
Ultimately, Ackermann was pleased with the result.
“To get five points against a quality Munster team — they’ve often been in the URC playoffs — that is the most important thing,” he said.
“Five points keeps us in the race. That’s the biggest box we can tick.”