The Vodacom Bulls may have stopped their rot and are now on a four game winning streak, but that all means little when it comes to the overall Vodacom United Rugby Championship season.
The word of caution was quick from coach Johan Ackermann after Saturday’s big win over the Hollywoodbets Sharks, where the Bulls outscored their opponents seven tries to two and looked like they are in superb form.
Ackermann is right to temper the excitement. The Bulls played some exceptional rugby against the Lions at Ellis Park and the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, but the season still has six games left and with most of those at home, the Bulls can look forward to a decent run into the playoffs.
They have some ground to make up and sit in eighth spot on the log with a game in hand on those ahead of them, but if they can continue the form they are currently in, they could be a very dangerous side indeed.
With players like Jan Serfontein, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg and Cameron Hanekom set to return in the next few weeks, the Bulls match day 23 could be even stronger.
KEEPING THE TEAM GROUNDED
But while things look good now and Ackermann is clearly starting to get the best out of his side, he knows that could change very quickly and needs to keep the players’ feet firmly entrenched on terra firma.
Origin Round shook things up.🫨🔥
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) March 1, 2026
Here's the table standings. @Vodacom #URC | #OriginRound pic.twitter.com/4PL9s1mi2a
“You must cherish a win and be grateful, and tomorrow you’ll wake up with a smile,” he said. “But success is written in ice — tomorrow the sun shines again.
“It gives us confidence and belief, but the next game brings different challenges, and you have to do everything all over again.
“We haven’t achieved anything, to be honest. A good win is only as good as where your season finishes. We just have to knuckle down and keep fighting.”
PRESSURE IS ON
Ackermann was proud of the victory and said there was a lot to work on. He added that if the team lost the pressure would have been intense on them heading into the business end of the season.
“One has to be grateful and appreciate the fact that we secured the victory,” Ackermann said.
“The fact that we didn’t have a good start to the season, we can’t get carried away. There’s a lot of work on’s, and we’ll have to keep building and get better as a team.
“We all know that in any competition, home games are important to win. We didn’t do well in the first part of the season, so this is basically the next step.
“The reality is, if we didn’t get the result, the pressure would mount [on us] massively because you’d have lost another home game and struggle to move up on the log.
“So for us it was important to keep in touch with everybody.
“Like I said a couple of weeks ago, if we look at ourselves and ensure we prepare well and give ourselves a chance, who knows where the season will go.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves; we’ll just take it week by week.”
UNSTOPPABLE
Still, there were moments in the game where the Bulls looked unstoppable. The exceptional vision of Harold Vorster and the pace of Embrose Papier saw them get two tries apiece, while a number of other players looked hungry for action.
The most pleasing part was the fact the Bulls managed to stave off the Sharks second half comeback when the scoreline went from 22-0 at halftime to 22-12. There was a real danger that they may have been seduced by their own success but they buckled down and romped home to win.
““We exited really well every time the Sharks came at us,” Ackermann said.
“When it went 22-5, 22-12, and it looked like they might get the next score and make a game of it, we showed composure. We exited well, and when we got the opportunity to score, we scored and took the momentum away from them.
“If you think back to earlier games, we had leads, and once the opposition got momentum, we let it roll over us. So, we showed a lot of composure.”
That composure has come to the fore over the last four games and will be needed when the side faces the Stormers on March 14. Another home win could be the catalyst for a good run to the playoffs. But the Stormers will be desperate and the Bulls know that.
And that’s why the celebrations were muted, and rightly so.