Bulls coach Johan Ackermann was pleased with his team’s performance in their 47-13 victory over Zebre in Parma, but he is refusing to get carried away.
Zebre finished last in the previous United Rugby Championship, and Ackermann knows the Bulls will face a far sterner examination against Munster in Limerick this week.
Nevertheless, the Bulls were without several Springboks and went into the match with a depleted front row, making the emphatic victory a positive start to their campaign.
Ackermann was pleased with the performance of Curwin Bosch, who deputised for Handre Pollard at flyhalf and made a promising Bulls debut.
“It was his first game for the Bulls and he controlled the game well,” Ackermann said.
“He kicked very well out of hand and slotted all his goal kicks. He hadn’t played for a couple of weeks because of the injury he picked up against the All Blacks.
“So to come out under pressure in your first game is a good base to build from. Hopefully it will just get better as the season progresses.”
Ackermann admitted there had been some nervousness before the match, particularly after the Bulls’ poor start to last season, when they lost 28-7 to Ulster in their opening game.
“The biggest thing we take is the fact that we got away with the win. Last year is still in your memory, so we were always nervous,” he said.
“We haven’t played a lot of warm-up games. I think there were only about 40 minutes of game time in each player that played in Parma, so we were a bit nervous that we might not be as good as we wanted to be.”
Zebre started strongly and forced the Bulls to show patience and resilience before they eventually took control of the match.
“For me, that was the positive. Against a tough opponent, in a tough place to come to after the travel, the guys showed a lot of fight in defence.
“I think our lineouts were good. We won almost all our lineouts apart from one in the corner.”
Ackermann was also pleased with the work of his tight five, although he identified the scrum as an area that needs improvement.
“The tight five put in a lot of hard yards, but our scrumming can get better,” he said.
“That’s a big work-on for us. You’re not always going to have the luxury of a scoreboard like tonight, so that’s something we can really improve.”
