'Bit unfair': Bulls boss Johan Ackermann's vow before All Blacks clash

Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann has promised he will go as “strong as we can” when naming his side to take on the All Blacks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Following a patchy 38-21 win over the Stormers and an emphatic 54-0 win over the Sharks, Dave Rennie’s side will take on the Bulls this weekend in the third match of their Greatest Rivalry tour and their final match before the first Test against the Springboks.

Despite the United Rugby Championship runners-up only recently returning for preseason, Ackermann has vowed that he will not take this match lightly when it comes to selection.

With that said, he did stress that the squad will of course be without their Springbok contingent, while also flagging injuries to Akker van der Merwe and Sebastian de Klerk. Fans can nevertheless expect to see some of the Bulls’ superstars on display such as Willie le Roux.

Similarly, in their final hit-out before taking on the world champions at Ellis Park, Rennie will likely field what will be close to his preferred All Blacks XV.

Fixture

Rugby Union Hybrid Friendlies

Bulls

10:00

15 Aug 26

New Zealand

All Stats and Data

“We’re going to go as strong as we can,” Ackermann said when speaking to reporters this week.

“Barring the Springboks who aren’t available and Akker van der Merwe, who is injured, and Sebastian de Klerk, who’s injured, all the other names that are available will play.

“So even the new guys who joined us – obviously there are a few guys that will still come like Luan Giliomee and Sango Xamlashe and Dylan Maart, but they’re with their Currie Cup teams and so on. But all the other names and the regulars like Harold Vorster and Stedman Gans will be out there.”

Ackermann also explained the complications and difficulties the squad have faced with the timing of this fixture.

“We would probably only have just returned from the break,” he said.

“We have to give the guys a five-week break, but we could only give them three weeks, otherwise you can imagine if we gave them five weeks they would only have started rugby last week. Physically, we just wouldn’t be there. Conditioning is one thing, but your body after three weeks, four weeks, loses all of its contact ability.

“So we had to fasttrack all of that. So if this game wasn’t there, we would probably have been in a conditioning phase only. We wouldn’t have touched much rugby and then would have started to only build up from the end of this month to the beginning of September.

“It has put a bit of pressure on us, and the challenge is your preseason is the only time you’ve got to play around with stuff. You normally play a warm-up match or two, and you trial stuff and you see if it works and you try to see which players are in form. Now, we are just picking on the squad that we’ve got left, with the odd guys who are unlucky not to be selected. It is a bit unfair, but that’s the hand we’ve got.”