The Bulls notched up their fourth United Rugby Championship win in a row against the Sharks on Saturday, but coach Johan Ackermann is taking nothing for granted
The Pretoria franchise lost seven matches in a row before finally breaking their unwanted streak against Section Paloise in January. Three of those losses were at home at Loftus Versfeld, a venue that has been a fortress for the Bulls in the past.
While Saturday’s comprehensive 41-12 win over the Sharks marked another big step on the return to form, Ackerman is taking nothing for granted as the Bulls head into the business end of the URC competition.
“One has to be grateful and appreciate the fact that we secured the victory,” said the coach.
“The fact that we didn’t have a good start to the season, we can’t get carried away. There’s a lot of work on’s, and we’ll have to keep building and get better as a team.
“We all know that in any competition, home games are important to win. We didn’t do well in the first part of the season, so this [result] is basically the next step.
“The reality is, if we didn’t get the result, the pressure would mount [on us] massively because you’d have lost another home game and struggle to move up on the log. So for us it was important to keep in touch with everybody.
“Like I said a couple of weeks ago, if we look at ourselves and ensure we prepare well and give ourselves a chance, who knows where the season will go. We can’t get ahead of ourselves; we’ll just take it week by week.”
The Bulls will face the Stormers in a rescheduled Round Eight fixture on 14 March in Pretoria. They currently sit in eighth place on the table, the last of the playoff spots.
