‘Job done’ but not perfect: Akkers pushes Bulls after Zebre win

The Bulls continued their march up the United Rugby Championship table on Saturday with their eight-try romp against Zebre.

While coach Johan Ackermann was pleased with the 54-19 win, he believes his side still has many areas to improve, especially as the knockout stages of the competition approach.

The Bulls are currently fourth on the URC log.

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“First of all, job done. I think that’s the most important. It wasn’t always pretty. The game didn’t have a lot of fluency at one stage,” he told reporters after the match.

“There were a few unnecessary penalties, some silly knocks, but over the 80 minutes when we needed to score, we scored, and when we needed to defend, we defended well,” he added.

Ackermann believes that the Bulls are still making too many mistakes, which in knockout rugby could prove very costly.

“We just gave away soft errors,” Ackermann said.

“Hopefully we tidy up those things because against the teams we’re going to play going forward, they will punish you.”

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He was happy, however, that players coming back from injury, and others who regularly warm the replacements’ bench got a good run-out on the day.

“Those guys needed the game time,” Ackermann acknowledged.

“Marco [van Staden] played 80 minutes, Willie [le Roux] played 80 minutes, and he hasn’t done that for a long time.

“Canan [Moodie] got good game time coming back from injury, and a lot of combinations were tested.

“If we get players off the bench in the next couple of weeks, at least everybody has experience starting and coming off the bench and making a difference.”

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The Bulls' final match in the league phase sees them face another Italian opponent, Benetton, who lost heavily to the Sharks.

That match kicks off at 16:00 on Saturday.