The Vodacom Bulls have decided that their best preparation for the upcoming Vodacom United Rugby Championship showdown with defending champions Leinster would be to return home and prepare in familiar surroundings at Loftus Versfeld, rather than stay in Ireland for a fortnight before the game.
Coach Johan Ackermann told Supersport.com that he had taken the decision after chatting to his fellow coaches and the senior leadership group, talking about the challenges of both decisions and the lessons learnt last year, when the Bulls travelled quickly after the semifinal and were well beaten in the final by the Irish team.
This time around, the Bulls have a week off, and they have decided to go to their homes and prepare in familiar surroundings rather than take the time in Ireland to prepare. They will leave on Monday for Ireland and be in Dublin for only a few days before the game.
While the Bulls decided to stay in France after their loss to Glasgow Warriors in the Investec Champions Cup, the decision this time was different, mainly due to several factors which Ackermann explained. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but there are advantages and disadvantages to whichever decision we would have taken,” Ackermann told supersport.com.
A CHANGE OF SCENERY
“For me, it was important to get the emotional side of the preparation correct for the players, and after chatting to the management and players, we decided it would be better to prepare at our home with the facilities that we are used to. That would also allow the players to be with their families and spend time with their children.
“At the moment, our plans are to train on Thursday and Friday and then fly out on Monday to Ireland.”
Ackermann said the one-off nature of the final made it different to their week in France between the Glasgow and Dragons game, where they decided to stay in France rather than return home.
The Vodacom Bulls edge Leinster in terms of the attacking stats heading into the #VURC Final 👀 pic.twitter.com/GLKv7jwAQT
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 8, 2026
“Remember that time we needed to book a return ticket in any case, because we played Glasgow in the round of 16 and we didn’t know if we needed to come back for a game against the Stormers or head to France. We simply did a pre-booking for Toulon in case we needed to travel there and stay for the quarterfinal,” Ackermann explained.
“We knew that if we lost, we would stay in France for nine or 10 days and we decided to use it to get the team morale up. We had two very important URC games in the next two weeks thereafter, and we needed to stay in the same hotel in Wales during those two weeks. If we lost to Glasgow, we would have had to stay three weeks in the same hotel in Cardiff and we decided it would be too boring for the players. So we gave them a bit of a change of scenery.
“Those decisions are always challenging when you don’t know how you are going to travel and it depends on a win or loss.”
The Bulls also had to travel to their semifinal in Edinburgh in four different groups, as there were not enough plane tickets for them to travel as a group.
That also contributed to the decision to return home and spend time with family. Now the players have some time off and will return later this week to Loftus Versfeld to begin their preparations for the final.
“We’re going to rest first,” Ackermann smiled, “and then return later this week to put the plans in place for the final.”