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Ackermann ready for 'one of the best packs in the world'

Johan Ackermann and son implicated in late night brawl

Johan Ackermann expects his Lions side to be fuelled by the agony of their Super Rugby final loss last year when they strive to contain the “X-factor” Crusaders possess in Saturday’s showdown at a sold-out Ellis Park.

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Lions were denied a first Super Rugby title by Hurricanes in Wellington 12 months ago, but will get another opportunity to get their hands on the trophy this weekend.

Ackermann’s men will be roared on by a capacity crowd of 60,000 when they attempt to pull off a historic victory and end a seven-year wait for a South African side to win the competition.

The Lions coach wants the painful memories of missing out last year to drive them on in Johannesburg.

He said: “I trust and believe the guys can look to last year as individuals, what the build up to the game was and the disappointment when the final whistle went.

“They know they’re only going to get those 80 minutes to do what they want to do, so that they have no regrets.

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“Saying that the team has changed a little bit from last year and the venue has changed. It’s great to play everything but in front of our home crowd and instead of the Wellington [Westpac] stadium with its 30 or 35000 fans – now its 60000 people. It is a nice atmosphere, and a nice challenge for us.

“We can just focus on what we can and what we want to achieve. The one thing about any New Zealand side is they can punish you at any time and any mistake they can capitalise on.

“That’s why they are known for the running game. But you are right for saying they kick a fair bit, when they need to kick. We can just focus on ourselves, make sure we stay calm and do the things well that we need to do well.”

Crusaders have lost only one Super Rugby match this season and Ackermann is well aware of the challenge his side face.

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“On paper, if you look at how many All Blacks they have, they’re definitely up with the best packs in world rugby.” he said.

“But then again, if you play the Chiefs, you know you’re in for a tough match. If you play the Hurricanes, the Highlanders – the Highlanders pack is also one that can work hard and can graft.

“They have X-factor there. If you look at the Crusaders pack there, they’re definitely a pack that plays together at test level as well. They’re a quality pack and they’ve shown the whole year that they are a quality side.

“Saying that, with the backline they have, there is a lot of X-factor that you have to contain.”

 

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Flankly 2 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 11 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 40 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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