Johan Ackermann
Golden Lions coach Johan Ackermann knows exactly where things went wrong for his team at the weekend.
And the wily mentor will not reach for the panic button, after his side dropped from first place to third on the Currie Cup standings in the wake of a 14-27 loss to Western Province at Newlands.
Even the return of stalwarts Alwyn Hollenbach and Deon van Rensburg will not result in panic selections this week.
Ackermann, addressing a media gathering after his team’s Round Three loss, said the big problem was that they “lost patience” in their game plan and also lacked in their execution.
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“Every time it looked like we might get momentum, there was a bad pass or a wobbly ruck and some poor decision,” he said.
One of the big issues was the withdrawal of young flyhalf Jaco van der Walt, with a knee injury – which he suffered during the previous weekend’s clash with the Eastern Province Kings at Ellis Park.
Ackermann admitted it was a setback, as he was forced to field centre Nicolaas Hanekom in the No.10 jersey – with regular pivot Marnitz Boshoff having been ruled out for the rest of the regular season with a fractured right arm.
“For Stokkies [Nicolaas Hanekom], you can’t ask for a bigger test than playing against an inform [Western] Province team at Newlands in his first game at flyhalf,” the Lions mentor said.
“We can’t be too harsh on him, he tried his best. If you haven’t got a player who has played there [flyhalf] before, it is always going to make it difficult.”
However, the good news is that the Under-20 pivot, Van der Walt, could be fit when they travel to Port Elizabeth to play the Kings this coming Saturday.
“The prognoses is that Jaco [van der Walt] will hopefully be fit. A worst case scenario is that he will be sidelined for one more week, but we are positive that he will be available.
“Alwyn Hollenbach will be ready and Deon van Rensburg will be ready.”
He said that they shouldn’t panic over one defeat, against “a good Western Province team” at Newlands.
“We will have to take a long, hard look at who can come back, while match-fitness is another factor.
“Deon [van Rensburg] and Alwyn [Hollenbach] last played in the Super Rugby competition. We will have to make a call, but we will be looking at guys who can play 80 minutes.”
Despite having dropped down the standings, Ackermann said it is “early days” in the competition.
“There are enough games [seven more rounds] for us to go back to the top of the standings, if things work out well for us.”
he said he won’t “harp on too long” about a loss.
“You have to prepare for the next week to see if you can correct things.
“We are disappointed with the loss, but the biggest disappointment is that we lost patience in terms of how we wanted to play.
“At times we lost our structure. We would have felt a lot better if we had managed to take at least a [losing bonus] point out of the game.
“The effort was there and that is why I say the real disappointment is that we just lacked the execution – that key pass or vital ruck.
“[It was] the small things that just wasn’t as accurate as what we needed.”
Ackermann said his side also needed to discover the fine balance between running with the ball and kicking.
“There were times when the kick was on and we didn’t do it [kick deep].
“We saw near the end of the match that when we kicked, that box-kick of Ross [Cronje], Western Province came back running hard at us and Kurt [Coleman] went through a huge hole. That resulted in a try which denied us a bonus point.”