Coach to focus purely on Lions
WE WILL KNOW WHAT WE HAVE TO DO He’s hoping the Hurricanes can throw spanner in the works.
Lions coach Johan Ackermann believes they will be on dangerous ground if they allow their minds to wander over the various permutations going into Super Rugby’s final regular round against the Sharks in Durban.
An unlikely Hurricanes win over the still unbeaten Crusaders this morning could allow the Lions a massive opportunity to go ahead of them at the top of the standings and home ground advantage in all their play-offs.
“Come kick-off we’ll know what we have to do.
“But it’s more important how we perform and how we play in those 80 minutes than what happens after that,” said Ackermann.
The Lions coach just grinned when asked whether he would wear a Hurricanes supporters jersey this morning.
“I think a lot of people are hoping for that, a Hurricanes win, as it will obviously give us an opportunity,” he said.
“But we can’t change our mindset, we can’t stand up Saturday morning with the one mindset and then after a few hours change it again.”
Ackermann said it was paramount that the players view the game as a match to fix those small little things ahead of the quarterfinals.
“So the challenge for the players is to go in with one mindset and that is to perform well regardless of what happens earlier on Saturday,” he said.
Today could be Ackermann’s second last game in charge, but if they can go all the way, there’s still four games before he hands over the reins to assistant coach Swys de Bruin.
“I’m very pleased for Swys, we have come a long way and we know how each other think and I know how the players feel about him.
“It’s great for him to be in charge and well-deserved. He served a long time as an assistant coach, he is very experienced.”
Ackermann said De Bruin is part of the culture they had created. He knows how the players’ minds work and how to get the best out of them.
“There’s 10, 11, 12 Springboks who can strengthen his hand and he just has to manage them. He has got a lot of good support around him with the rest of the management with Rudolf (Straeuli, CEO) still here.
“I think it’s a great selection and I’m truly happy for him.”