Akkers after a few games

Yeah, the Bulls lost last night, but let's remember what a good side Glasgow are and that they are very settled with Smit's system running like a well oiled machine.

Akker has only been in charge for a few games and the Bulls could easily have won last night.

For me the game hinged on one moment when the ref, who I think had a shocker, warned the Bulls that another infringement would buy them a yellow.

I couldn't see much wrong with the maul that got them yellow carded, since all the Bulls were on their feet and the entire Glasgow pack collapsed. Granted there were hardly any replays of the maul, but the way Glasgow collapsed appeared choreographed. I could be wrong.

That incident cost Akker's boys the game. Just no coming back from it...7 points and a yellow at that point in the game was just too much.

Still, Akker had been in charge for barely a quarter of a season and his side pushed one of the best sides in the comp very close in Scotland.

Honestly, I'll take that. There breakdown work is starting to look much tidier, and it's clear that they're aiming for balance in their game. I do think they have the players to do what Akker is aiming for and I'm relatively sure they'll get there.

I feel like we'll know much more halfway through the season but it looks to me like they're headed in the right direction.

They do need a better 10 though. Johannes is a Manie clone but worse at everything.

If you remove Sacha from the picture, SA are actually really struggling for 10s. Between Johannes, Hendrikse, Masuku...where do we go when Pollard hangs up his boots?

Plum

Interesting comments. SA teams thus far in the URC struggled to win matches becaus of malfunctioning 10 and 12 players, That si why the rest of the backline malfuctioned from the word go,

So far the situation is the following - other than with the Lions to a lesser extent - dominate all the teams they played against and that should mean the backlines should dominate all facets of the game if they deliver decent backline performances - but they don't. because of deficiency starting with the 10 and 12 performances,

All SA teams bar th e S tormers has a negative point difference bar the Stormers - all t e teams missed their S rpringboks in the first two matches they played and when the Springboks came back - other than in the cases of Sacha and Willemse the bckline players failed to deliver up to expentations,

o lets look at th e situation as to what happened:

1 Stormers 4 played - 4 wins - 19 points - point diference + 103

2 Bulls - 5 played - 3 wins - 2 losses - 14 points - point difference - 8

3 Lions - 4 played - 1 win 3 losses - points 6 point difference - 30

4 Sharks - 4 played - 4 losses - points 3 point difference - 50

S o that indeed proved failures in 3 of the 4 franchises and those all relate to malfunction backlines, In 2 of the four matches the Stormers played they had a flyhalf no better than Masuku, Johannes and Hendricks - yet that did not stop their backlines from playing attacking rugby, So it is a cmbination of the flyhalfs and inside centers that made the difference, Unless that problem is solved the three lower rnaked fanchises will not improve and the backlines will not function properly. The buls ha ve hew orst 12's - followed by the Sharks and then the Lions.

No back to Pollard - he was not really showing anyting in the test he played in and his perfomance against Leinster was a horror-show. As he gets older he is clearly losing performance ability and I cannot see him lastig through 2026 - leave alone 2027.

So in contracting no 12 players the Bulls and Sharks made huge mistakes - with the Lions lessser so. I would say in the backline the Bulls is sound - the Sharks not so having Am and Mapimpi in their backline, Like the Stormers move away from the present scenario the should rather contract younger players and their future this year looks massively better than the other 3, So get rid of the duds and bring in promising better youmgsters into the set-ups,

I think in the case of Ackerman he would clear out the White mess before the end of the 2026 series, With Pluntree the problem lies with Plumtree - but also with the team leadership on the field - most of the Springboks they are arsewhole bigger than the big hole in Kimberley - heya e uncachable ebcase hey think hey are better han any coach imaginable.

.

I couldn't see much wrong with the maul that got them yellow carded, since all the Bulls were on their feet and the entire Glasgow pack collapsed. Granted there were hardly any replays of the maul, but the way Glasgow collapsed appeared choreographed. I could be wrong.

I've watched a few replays as I've got the URC TV package and its very hard to tell either, but again it's a bit like a dominate scrum being penalised when they are scrumming on the opponents 5 metre line for stepping back and not taking the hit, why would the dominate team deliberately do that? That Glasgow maul was moving at a rate of knots to the Bulls try line and where pretty much certain to score if they just kept going for 2-3 more seconds

The Bulls would of one that game but for the knock on. I think that combined with the penalty try broke their resolve but overall I don't think the Bulls don't look too bad. They will be easy top 8 and likely top 4 contenders at the end of the season.