Vodacom Bulls coach Johan Ackermann believes his side needs to “embrace the occasion” against the All Blacks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, even though the Pretoria-based team will be in a pre-season mode and missing a number of players.
Ackermann was chatting as his side prepared to be the third franchise to face the All Blacks, who beat both the Stormers and Sharks in their opening two games of the tour.
THE TIME HAS COME 🏆
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) August 12, 2026
🗓️15 AUGUST | 19:00 | LOFTUS
🎟️ https://t.co/wGLq9D1HZh
See YOU at Loftus 🔥 pic.twitter.com/dwJYhZRBwD
While the South African franchises have had to split their pre-season to accommodate the one-off games against the tourists, and have several players missing at the Springbok camp, Ackermann is still optimistic they can put up a good fight against a good All Black side.
“I think, to be honest, it's a great occasion, but we will definitely be a little bit under-prepared from where we want to be. Obviously, we're building up to the URC and that's still a few weeks away, so we don't want to peak now. So therefore, I think we're trying some new stuff and we're trying to expand on our game from last season,” Ackermann said.
“So if we can see some of those signs, that will probably be the first thing. It will be a tough ask to play against the international side for 80 minutes. It's not to use an excuse, but the fact that we went to the finals, we had less time to prepare than the other franchises.
“And therefore, with a few things we did, we can implement it. This will be a massive test because you're going to do it not against a warm-up game, against somebody where you can trial and error, you do it against one of the best sides in the world, if you get it wrong, they can punish you.
“But that's why we just want to embrace the occasion and embrace this.”
Getting stuck in, whatever the weather. 🌧️💪
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) August 12, 2026
All focus on the All Blacks. 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/bVLJekd0br
Ackermann said he didn’t want to read too much into the All Blacks' performance against the Stormers, as they were fighting for spots in the side.
“So maybe they're a little bit individualistic at the moment where they're fighting for those spots. So you have to take that into account. It is a change of environment. It is a change of traveling guys getting used to playing in South Africa. So in a sense, we don't want to read too much in that Stormers game. I think they're just going to get better and better.
“And we expect that they're going to probably come with a test match mentality on Saturday because it's a week before the first test. Ultimately, I mean, we just want to see if we can get a bit of reward for what we tried to practice in these last couple of weeks. Like I said, the time was a bit against us to really put it in place like we wanted.”
The Bulls will name their side for the clash on Thursday.