»Ackermann praises young guns despite defeat
JOHAN Ackermann said he felt proud and was able to take a lot of heart from Gloucester’s performance against Castres despite a last-gasp defeat.
A young Cherry and Whites side, featuring six current academy players in the matchday squad with another 10 to have graduated through the club’s system, made the trip to France for the dead rubber Heineken Champions Cup Pool 2 game and almost came away with a victory, only for Ma’ama Vaipulu’s injury-time try to snatch a 24-22 win for the reigning French champions.
“We will benefit from this going forward with a number of young guys, the whole front row was 21 and then Charlie Chapman had experience and Tom Seabrook as well,” said Ackermann.
“Considering that and the number of changes we made, I’m proud.
“It was definitely not a lack of effort and commitment, there were some outstanding performances from some individuals and we probably could and should have won it but we’ll look back at a few opportunities.
“The main thing is it’s a tough place to come, anywhere in France (is), and the performance was very good.
“We can take a lot of heart from the performances from a lot of players but also from the young boys that got an opportunity tonight in a tough place to come against a quality side.”
Castres’ winning try came five minutes past the 80-minute mark but Gloucester did have the chance to kick it out but Tom Seabrook hit it long upfield instead.
“I think he didn’t realise,” said Ackermann. “He saw the turnover and the first thing that went through his mind was to kick it.
“We should have been better, keeping them 60 or 50 metres from their own try line.
“But that’s life and the main thing is we came out and gave a fight and that’s what we asked for.”
Gloucester struggled in the set piece
We can take a lot of heart from the performances from a lot of players but also from the young boys that got an opportunity Johan Ackermann
but Ackermann feels the game will be a good learning experience for his young starting front row of Alex Seville, Henry Walker and Ciaran Knight, who are all still in the academy.
“They’ve got a lot of experience in that department and we’ve thrown in guys who haven’t played a lot in that department,” said Ackermann.
“They will get better from this experience. That’s the only way for them to pick up experience, to be put in the line of fire and they will learn from that.”
Gloucester raced into a 14-0 lead in the first 20 minutes, playing with a lot of freedom, but found themselves under the cosh for most of the game after that.
“That was the disappointing thing that we couldn’t keep that going,” said Ackermann.
“Up to 30 minutes I felt we played a lot of quality rugby, our ruck speed was good, our ball in hand was good.
“The second half, just before half time we gave them an easy try and then second half again we had two or three attacking opportunities but we lost the ball quite soon and never got that momentum.”
The defeat means Gloucester finished bottom of their pool in their first season back in Europe’s top competition, leaving Ackermann to reflect on what might have been after they started with a home win over Castres and beat Exeter away.
“We are disappointed, I’m not going to hide that,” said Ackermann.
“After three rounds we put ourselves up there and suddenly in round four and five we weren’t good enough.
“We did all the hard work by winning well at home and then win at Exeter away from home and we needed to back it up with two home wins (against Exeter and Munster) but couldn’t.
“That’s the disappointing thing but for a lot of the players it was a big ask because of the injuries and stuff, we couldn’t go as fresh as we’d like in this tournament and we’ve learnt that this competition goes a level up.”