Ackermann admits Bulls 'didn't give themselves a chance' in 36-7 URC final hammering by Leinster

Leinster crushed the Vodacom Bulls 36-7 in the BKT United Rugby Championship Grand Final at Croke Park on Friday, inflicting a fourth final defeat in five attempts on the South African side and a second consecutive heavy loss to the defending champions.

Head coach Johan Ackermann offered a candid post-match assessment, acknowledging that his Springbok-laden squad — who had spent the week talking up the importance of a fast start — never came close to delivering one.

“We didn’t really give ourselves a chance,” Ackermann said. “We were out of it quite early on the scoreboard.”

The damage was done within the opening minutes. Centre Canan Moodie was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on, and when Leinster knocked the ball on shortly afterwards, the Bulls chose to play on rather than take the resulting scrum. Two phases later they conceded a try, and Ackermann was unequivocal about the error in judgement.

“For me, when you’ve got a yellow card and the opposition knocks the ball on, you take the scrum. There was only about a minute gone on the yellow card and I thought our chances of earning a penalty from the scrum were good. But we kept playing, made a mistake two phases later and they went and scored. That’s the lesson. Next time, take the scrum.”

A lost lineout led directly to a second Leinster score, and the Bulls found themselves 12-0 down before they had found their footing. Ackermann reflected on how quickly the game slipped away.

“If they don’t score there and the next five or 10 minutes stay scoreless, it’s still 0-0 and not 7-0. Then shortly afterwards we lost a lineout and they scored again. Suddenly it’s 12-0 and you’re chasing the game. Against a quality side like Leinster, those margins matter. We knew we had to be accurate, and unfortunately we weren’t.”

The lineout was another area Ackermann identified as below par, though he stopped short of blaming tactics alone. “I think we probably could have looked a little differently at our lineout plays. Maybe they contested well and perhaps we needed a bit more variation on our seven-man lineouts. But I don’t think that’s the main issue. We just didn’t execute our plan.”

He was generous in crediting Leinster’s clinical edge throughout, particularly in the first half. “Every opportunity they got, they got points. Every mistake we made, they punished us. They were a champion team today — with world-class coaches and world-class players.”

Despite the scale of the loss, Ackermann was keen to defend the effort of his players even as he acknowledged the performance fell well short of what was required.