Vodacom Bulls coach Johan Ackermann says playing their URC semi-final against the Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield will make a “big difference”. SIMON BORCHARDT reports.
The Bulls booked their place in the last four with a commanding 45-14 victory against Munster at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, setting up a third clash of the season against Franco Smith’s Warriors in Scotland.
Ackermann’s side lost 21-12 to Glasgow in the URC in October before suffering a 25-21 defeat in the Investec Champions Cup quarter-finals. Both matches were played at Scotstoun Stadium, which has an artificial 4G pitch that favours the hosts.
However, next weekend’s semi-final will be played on Murrayfield’s grass pitch, with Scotstoun unavailable due to preparations for the Commonwealth Games.
“I see we play at Murrayfield,” Ackermann said after Saturday’s win. “It’s a grass surface, so it makes a big difference.”
Ackermann believes the Bulls have a great opportunity to avenge those two defeats.
“The second game [in the Champions Cup], we made mistakes, they exploited it and credit to them.
“But the first game [in the URC], they got a penalty try that swung the momentum and it was clear in the review that it shouldn’t have been a penalty try. That’s what I was a bit unhappy about – that we didn’t use the technology to make a big call.
“Hopefully we won’t get to that scenario in the semi-final. If they’re the better team, they deserve to win, and the other way around.
“But it’s a nice challenge. We’ve lost twice against them and now we get the opportunity to play them again, but this time at a different venue.”
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However, the Bulls are likely to be without winger Sergeal Petersen for the trip to Edinburgh after he injured his shoulder against Munster.
“There are a few knocks that we’re a little bit concerned about,” Ackermann said. “Hopefully it’s only knocks.
“But it looks like Sergeal won’t make next week. He’s done his shoulder quite badly, so that’s the one we’re aware of now.”
In some good news for the Bulls, winger Cheswill Jooste is set to return having missed the Munster match due to a hamstring injury.
“He’s almost ready, so hopefully by Monday he can train with us and be an option, especially now with Sergeal out,” Ackermann said.
“That’s been one area where we’ve just scraped through the whole season. If one winger is out, another one goes down.”
The Bulls overwhelmed Munster with six tries at Loftus, but despite the emphatic scoreline, Ackermann warned that Glasgow would punish the Bulls if they repeat the mistakes they made against the Irish side.
“Glasgow are so clinical,” he said. “There were some silly offloads today and there were some great ones, so we have to cut out those silly ones.
“Glasgow defend very well. They don’t make it easy for you, so our patience with the ball obviously has to improve.
“It sounds arrogant because of the score, but we have to perform even better than today because Glasgow will punish you if we make the same mistakes.
“They’re just an all-round highly skilled attacking team.”
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Ackermann was nevertheless encouraged by the way the Bulls responded whenever Munster threatened to get back into the game.
“Munster are a quality side and they’ve got a lot of fight in them,” he said. “That’s why we always knew they weren’t going to stop playing, and they didn’t stop playing for the full 80 minutes.
“There are always going to be momentum swings. But the response from the players was encouraging and hopefully we can keep doing that.”
Photo: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
The post Ackers welcomes Murrayfield switch appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Vodacom Bulls coach Johan Ackermann says playing their URC semi-final against the Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield will make a “big difference”.
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