He needs Swys at his side.
He needs Swys at his side.
Bulls were very impressive in the first half. They let Borries get off to a flyer in the second and then those two yellows. Kriel's was not the big issue, Pollard's was. They lost the guy running the show and never got that momentum back. Lineouts also went to shit in the second half.
Or perhaps he needs John Mitchell to train the players and create a coaching system. Then wait for Mitchell to be fired, and sit back and take the credit. Swyss also learnt a great deal from Mitchell, and he also contributed a lot - perhaps more than Ackerman.
Ackerman may just lack the brains to coach.
Akkerman joined the bulls end of July…
So Honestly, give the guy a proper chance before the Doomsday prophets come calling.
Bools made a lot of mistakes. Especially when they were attacking and went wide but the lost the ball with no support and gave away two soft tries on their own attack. The were also very poor covering at the back, must be due to being down a backline player.
However, Johan had no excuse, that is a formidable bools team
It wasn't Ackers who copped two yellows by sticking out his hand at impossible passes. Bulls were playing some damn fine complete rugby in that first half. Bordeaux came out firing in the second and the Bulls had to absorb 20 minutes of that a man down.
They need to get Moodie into midfield, they have no strike power in the centers and the guy is wasted out on the wing where he sees almost no ball. Vorster and Kriel were toothless, 11m carried between the two of them. If they had a combo like Esterhuizen/Moodie in midfield they'd be a different side. Are there no young firebreathing 12s in Bulls land? Are the 32-year old journeymen in Vorster and Jan Step seeing out their retirement from the game all they have?
Centers have been an issue for some time now. Don't know why they keep picking Vorster.
Not sure what is Kriel best position. Is it in the back 3 or centre
The problem in the case of both the Bulls and Sharks is that they never looked ar contracting young players in the center positions with the result it leads to plwying 10 men rugby 9eyvtm snd fai to develp any chan ge to man rugby, That is leading to the inability to optimize backline attacks.
Morning, its 10.30 in middleearth ..... glad the MB's back, been awol for awhile .
Its not only Akkerman .... very kak w/end for all teams, behalwe die WP.
Bordeaux are an excellent team packed with French internationals and bolstered with some big money buys.
The Bulls were well in it most of the way.
Let's give Akker a chance before we call him the worst coach in history.
The NZ powers has shifted to the French team which SA team are notorious very poor playing against. Did you see the south sea islanders monsters that they brought on in the 2nd half. That enormous prop. Wasn't so much his scrumming but wrecking ball carries. Some of those big fleet footed and power centers and that lock come flank that was all over the park. These players would traditionally show up in the kiwi teams but now they are all in France earning big money for their families.
We have to many powder puff players, AKA skinny fleet footed. But very small. Fine against European teams but not those Polynesians
Did you see the south sea islanders monsters that they brought on in the 2nd half.
Rayasi caused some havoc out back for sure.
Plum
I never said that Ackerman is a poor coach.. I am a sure there is still a problem. The main problem I see in the Bulls is linked to the squad Ackrman inherited from White, White never had any idea as to what is to be expected from usage of the backline players in attacks or defense, For White the issue was the usage of forwards - for him the Bulls loosies was an extension of the Tight 5 - not ever to be effective in attacking backline or defense play, Aside from that no backline strategy to play attacking rugby was a no-no when it came to the Bulls,
There are two priorities that was missed totally under White's Bulls - but present in the case of the Springboks, That is to develop backline play for both defense and attack, In the proccss I will give you two examples in the Bordeaux backline and those were in their wings, Instead of how to deal wih the Bordeaux backline was to identify what the most dangerous opposition players are to identify what should be done to neutralize them iro defense and coached the Bulls accordingly, The second problem is.coaching backline playes to round off attacks by the Bulls backline whib was never a priority fo the Bulls,
Take for instance White's coaching of teams. Th White coaching indeed are called Jake-ball. t entails kicking the shit out of balls by the half-backs - mostly ineffective in key games, In his book the fact is that In his book John Smit write there were no strategy for the backs to score tries and no training in how the backline in the final should be used at all other than to defend. In other words just look at the URC finals ovr the last three years - all lost because the Bulls played Jake-ball.
That represent the major reason why the Bulls failed in all three URC finals. ,No backline plan and no training to deal with issues, , It will take time to repaire the damage caused by White and the center issue and the Bulls will not succeed before the damage is repaired.
,The damage is not estricted to the Bulls - it si even worse when ot comes to the Sharks, . , .
. ,
White is the problem…..and the poor Sharks are still no good because he was coaching them in 2014. Is Clever the stupidest man on the Planet I ask with tears in my eyes?
Sharks have already reached out to White for advice.
That will doom them for the next 30 years
I hear Eben and JP Pietersen will be getting involved in coaching the Snarks.
Actually the Bools attacking game looked quite potent. Unfortunatelygood breaks by Moodie and Papier were reversed by turnovers leading to Bordeaux tries. ButI’d say the attacking game looks promising
The scrum while not as dominant as the Boks stilllooked in control. And 2 clear instances of the Frogs/Tongans losing their bind were not called.
The issues were in controlling the Bordeaux maul and general backline defense. The defensive structure and line speed just weren’t there.
I also wondered again, how can France be picking Ntmack ahead of Jalibert..
Eben and JP would be a solid combination…warm the cockles of Rhonda’s heart I’m sure. Come to think of it Rhonda has run away again since his Etzebeth hatchet job imploded.
Uncle BS never ceases to amaze…Poor Jake White still gets the blame for the Sharks poor form…Ooh liewe genade, maar die oom praat baie kak:)
I also wondered again, how can France be picking Ntmack ahead of Jalibert..
Jellybear is far superior, but I remember he pulled himself from the squad during the All Black tour because he was selected on the bench and not as a starter. So maybe that's part of it, that he's not a good team guy. Galthie was pretty non-committal at the time saying it's "down to him (Jellybear) to decide" if he wants to take further part in the national team.
I disagree with you Mozart on Bools attacking plan.
Both their wingers got stripped when they went wide and on both times the frogs countered and scored in one move.
Their defence is also really weak. They need to figure a game plan with the players they have. No point you have the likes of Marcel driving forward gaining meters with pick and go and then end up coughing the ball up. They hardly use proper tactical kicking and it was almost like Pollard was caught in-between two game plans.
Dumb Mozart
White never had a game plan and was using forwards only as battering rams. That was the main reason why he was fired by SARU,.the Sharks, Montpellier and the Bulls. Aside from that he was also causing division wihin teams and teated his favoured players well and the rest of the squad like shit amd the assistant coaches were treated like dummies and advice ignored.
One would have thought that he could do well with the Bulls - but he failed in all his free years as Bull coach in the finals of the URC three times. In his audacity to attack the playrs in public and blame them for the losses, He treated players like children and not like professional rugby players,
He was not as big a failure as Meyer and Coetzee were - they nearly destroyed the clubs they coached and was force disgracefully and sent packing.together with two players he signed and proved to be failures - namely Alberts and dear Morne.
The problem is Ackerman inherited some very poor contracted players from White, I include Coetzee and Van Staaden, Vorster and Serfontein.
You mean the van Staden who Geraasmus picked to play in many of the big tests this year including Eden Park. That van Staden?
Lol the more we hear how bad Marco and snort he are, the more I like them.
Marco dipped a little this year but then came back and played some excellent rugby.
Nortje is quickly becoming a talisman. I had doubts but he won me over.
Honestly, the only two players I'd like to see the back of are Kriel and the mega donkey DDA.
...Manie can stay, for now, but I'd like to see him replaced because it doesn't matter how well he plays between now and the WC, if Sasha is injured, is there anybody here that would want Manie starting in a knockout game?
Mozart
Nobody ever said Erasmus is faultless - he also make team selections that was problematuc - but in the end he built functional teams that won matches.
He changed the team - but there are still problems with elements yu completely missed - like according to you Du Toit loitering on the sidelines. From there the team scored numerous tries this year - from their it improved defense on the wing. He brought in a system the AB's used for decades ruling World Rugby as a result - mobile loosies fucntion both becoming part of backline atack and defense,
Slow loosies incapable of palying a wider role is a problem of the Bulls at present But Hanekom will be coming back and I think Ludwig can be developed into a Du Toit tye of loosie, Like in the days of Meyerand of White - loosies became an extension of the Tight 5 - slow and ponderous with no real function outside of thatrestricion.
You despise Erasmus for oping out of White's coaching set-up in 2007 - but White has a record of never accpeting any changes in approach and no game plans in matches was always central to White as a coach, Thta is hy successes in getting trophies was limited to the 2004 TRi-Nations victory based on point difference and the 2007RWC - in which the Sringboks never met team in teh series ranked higher than the Springboks. That is why White was fired as coach 4 times by major teams he coached,
Take for instance the Bulls - he got Pollard contracted - but no flyhalf back-up - he got Serfotein at inside center - way passed his prime at 12 - and Willie at full back not 10% of the player he used be. Look at the mess t he Lions made of the Bulls backline in the URC match.
Ackerrman did not conract the playes he inherited from White and what he inheried has thus far proved to be ineffective. However unlike White did not blame he plaes fro the loss like week to Bordeaux. For 70% of the match the Bulls ewere competitive - but in the last 10% of the match the effort of the Bulls fell apart.
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Not sure if you okes watched the game but another loss for Johan kAkkerman. Looks like he is well behind the curve when it comes to coaching. The Bools are going from boring , predictable but winning most games to erratic at best with nonsense attack. Adding Pollard to the mix haven't helped them either and it has become obvious that he can't find his youthful attacking mindset. He is now just a kicking 10 that stands deep in the pocket and can't get his backline away.
To be honest, it was always going to be an awful game in Durban with the humidity. Saarks wasn't much better but Esterhuizen proved to be the difference once more with his surfing runs, although some poor passing let him down.
As for kAkkerman, think he is up shit creek now. Where to next for the Bools. Just proves swys was the mastermind back in the day. However, they also use to concede a lot of tries. Time to go back to bools DNA rugby and they need to find a coach that can bring the best out of them
Jake and Akker have two totally different styles.
Tue Bulls show signs of moving Towards what Akker wants to do.
How many game hours have they had? Somewhere between 10 and 20?
How long do you think it takes to turn a team into one that plays to your plan while executing accurately?
It's not an overnight thing.
Let's see how he goes this year and who he gets in next year.
Agree with you. I think Ackerman will h ave t find a better backline attack coach - as well as one with a conmprehenive view as to loose forward usage that saddled them with loosies like Van Staaden. Hannekom will be a hugge inmprovement - but he needs two other similar loosies to really improve atacking rugby.
That is why the Stormers are doing so well this year - their stand-in flyhalf and loosies are a level higher than in any other franchises inm the URC.
The problem with Jake's bools were that they had so many loose forwards that they didn't know what to do with them. So much attacking from the breakdown only to cough up the ball or no line breaks. Kurtley Arendse made a big difference and so did Johan Goosen when he first came back and before he got injured. The Bools were also really physical which a lot of the URC teams didn't expect but the following season the Irish teams brought there physicality and end up beating the bools, but to be in 3 finals is massive but they couldn't play in the last 20 min which we saw when they lost to Munster and Glasgow.
Stormers seem to be the only team that can score something out of nothing. Thought the Lions played really well on the weekend.
What an abysmal record, time to to fire Johan Kakkerman with immediate effect.
wonder whether firing Jake was so good now after all.
if the booools have any pride, get rid of Kakkerman.
bring back Jake. So many quality players and it looks like they are playing touchies
an occasional score will be appreciated please
Go check the match thread. ;-)
Bools shifted 4 tries in the first 15 minutes. They conceded 30 points in the first 30 min.
Bools never got ahead. Looks like kAkkerman wants to play like his lions team of old. There was absolutely now defence and thought it would be a run a palooza game.
Don't even get me started on Willie. Those frustrating but of Le Roux, it all came out to contribute.
This boils are playing ones and twos at the moment
tx 4 niks
January 10, 2026 at 10:06 pm
Columnist
Harold Foster of the Bulls with the ball during the Investec Champions Cup match against Bristol Bears at Loftus Versfeld on January 10, 2026. (Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images)
A momentous afternoon for Bristol’s Bears and the most miserable for a Bulls team for which there is no appropriate adjective when it comes to describing their lack of defensive effort.
Loftus, for home supporters, has turned from an altitude-powered fortress to a defensive house of horrors.
This is the Investec Champions Cup; the toughest club rugby competition in the world, where pride comes in the form of protecting one’s tryline and hope does not come from scoring 49 points at home and conceding 61 points.
The Crusaders, in the 2017 Super Rugby competition, scored 62 points and 10 tries against the Bulls at Loftus. Saturday’s 61 points is the second most conceded at home by the Bulls.
The Bears won in Pretoria 61-49, but the result was not safe until the final hooter. That says as much about the Bears feeble defence as it does the Bulls. Both teams were a defensive disaster.
The greatest teams in the history of the Champions Cup are defined by their defensive resolve, their ability to stop tries even more than a desire to score them.
None of that was on display at Loftus in a match where the English visitors led 21-0 after eight minutes and scored a fourth try and bonus point within 15 minutes. By the 25th minute the teams had combined for 63 points.
At halftime, 75 points had been scored, 47 to Bristol and 28 to the Bulls.
It was a try-scoring carnival, but it betrayed the fabric of this great competition, and the current Bulls are doing everything to curse the legacy of a jersey worn, not too long ago, by tournament champions Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Danie Rossouw, Fourie du Preez, Morne Steyn and Bryan Habana.
Bristol, a week ago, played a game in near snow. On Saturday, at altitude and in 30 degrees heat, they toyed with and destroyed a Bulls team, whose individuals, defensively, looked like they had met in the warm-up drills.
There can only be rugby shame for every one of those Bulls players who leaked 61 points at home. Forget the 49 scored and the craziness of a match in which the Bulls could still have won it with five minutes to go.
This was a statement of sorrow from the Bulls players. They certainly did not play for each other, and they did not play for their coach or his support staff.
Tight teams scramble on defence and make one-on-one tackles.
Most tellingly the Bulls did not play for the 11 000 who arrived at Loftus. High school rugby games in the city attract a bigger crowd.
The Bulls currently have no game identity and are imposters when it comes to their DNA. They picked seven Springboks in their pack of eight and a Springboks halfback pairing, and then played Sevens rugby.
The confusion, indecision and lack of clarity was embarrassing.
Even when they trailed by two scores with 15 minutes to play, they were tapping and going from 85 metres, against a team who thrives on no structure, width and all-out attack.
Senior Springboks Willie le Roux and Handre Pollard have shown more care in decision-making and on-field discipline when playing school rugby in the mid-2000s.
The Bulls picked the most potent scrum and lineout and never looked to play set-piece rugby.
Bristol, with Pat Lam at the helm, are renowned for their absolute belief in a ball-in-hand game, fast paced and full-throttle approach.
This was a line-break attack performance Bristol will store in the archives, but the naivety and disinterest of the hosts biggest name players to counter Bristol should also be archived come contract discussions.
For the record, 110 points were scored, with the two teams combining for 16 tries and 1351 metres on attack.
More significantly is that the teams combined to miss 25 percent of their tackles (77 from 312), conceded 35-line breaks and 27 turnovers.
Meanwhile, in Manchester, in the battle of the Sharks, the hosts were always going to be the winner.
(SA) Sharks coach JP Pietersen made 14 changes to the starting XV that lost in Durban to the Lions in the URC a week ago.
For all the bravado and talk from (SA) Sharks owner Marco Masotti in labelling the Sale Sharks tuna, the only team leaving Manchester shredded and packaged in a can was going to be the visitors.
The (SA) Sharks have struggled to win in 30 degrees humidity in Durban this season, so there was no way they were going to make any sort of statement in the coldest of winters up north.
The Sale Sharks won 26-10, with a four-try bonus point. The South Africans have to beat Clermont in Durban next weekend to make the last 16 play-offs.
In the EPCR Challenge Cup, Morne Brandon scored in the 78th minute and Chris Smith converted for a 42-33 Lions win against Lyon at Ellis Park. The Lions led 28-7 midway through the first half.
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uploadersemoer .......
Where would we be without Rassie Erasmus.
Agree Been
Just a sprinkle of sanity...
The Bulls sacked their assistant coaches two minutes ago. Akkerman is trying to imprint his own style on the Bulls. Transition takes time.
The Bulls are also stuck with some older Bokes that aren't really pulling their weight.
So let's calm down a touch before we declare the sky is falling.
3,518 posts
Not sure he is having a great start to coaching the bools. He was dumped from Japan after finishing at the bottom of the league.
Got chased out of Gloucester. Is he the answer for the Bools?