Bulls coach warns against underestimating Dragons in must-win clash

The Bulls will not fall into the trap of underestimating the Dragons in a game they must win to keep their hopes of success in the United Rugby Championship alive, coach Johan Ackermann says.

To achieve their goal of reaching the playoffs, the Bulls have set their sights on maximum points in their remaining four games, starting with the Dragons in Newport on Friday (8.45pm kickoff).

“Everyone knows the importance of the upcoming United Rugby Championship matches now that we’re out of the Champions Cup,” Ackermann said.

“The reality is results can go one way or the other. If you don’t get the results, there will be a danger of missing out on the playoffs, which will be catastrophic for us.

“The first thing is to win our upcoming matches and get the results to have your destiny in your own hands.

“We have to focus on the Dragons first. For one, they pushed the Stormers and Lions before defeating Stade Francais in the Challenge Cup to advance to the quarterfinals.

“They’re not a bad team. They’re not a team where you can go out onto the field and collect five points. They’re a good team, and we have made plans for how we want to play against them.

“If you go through their stats, there are a lot of good things they do. They’re a challenging side, and we spoke about the breakdown and how they contest it and their maul-stopping ability as well as their kicking game.

“There are many good things they do, so we need to be at our best. We can’t underestimate them based on where they are on the log. Only then do you move on to the Scarlets away and the two Italian games [Zebre and Benetton] at Loftus.

Ackermann said losing to the Stormers had added pressure to his team’s hopes of success.

“The reality is that the Stormers’ loss hurt us a bit, being a home game,” he said. “That could have given us a bit of a buffer and given us more of a realistic chance of a top four finish.

“Now we have to rely on getting four bonus point wins, but the first thing for us is getting the win and playing accurate rugby instead of a high-risk game chasing bonus points.

When our discipline is better, we’re in the game a lot more. So that is a big thing for us to fix

—  Johan Ackermann

“Teams like Glasgow and Leinster will be up there, and if you want to win this competition, you’ll have to do it away from home. That’s the reality.”

Ackermann said hard work lies ahead for his team on the training pitch before the Dragons clash.

“We didn’t use all our opportunities in Glasgow’s 22 in the Champions Cup, and unfortunately a few of the kickoffs come to mind where we didn’t execute well and made mistakes.

“We also gave them soft entries through our discipline when we went offside a few times. That gave them territory and possession.

“Credit to them — they capitalised and scored. When our discipline is better, we’re in the game a lot more. So that is a big thing for us to fix.”

SA teams’ URC fixtures

SA times

• Friday: Dragons v Bulls (8.45pm)
• Saturday: Stormers v Connacht (1.45pm), Lions v Glasgow Warriors (4pm), Ospreys v Sharks (8.45pm)

The Herald