Ackermann has‘things toprove’at Gloucester
JOHAN Ackermann says he has a “few things to prove at Gloucester” after confirming that the Blue Bulls wanted to speak to him about their vacant director of rugby position.
The South African province are still searching for a successor to John Mitchell, who has taken up a role as defence coach with England, and it was reported in South Africa that they made an approach for the Cherry and Whites head coach, which was turned down.
“Obviously club has told me that they see me as a candidate but at the moment my focus is with Gloucester,” said Ackermann.
“I’ve got a job to do here and it starts again Friday, that’s where my focus is and nothing will distract from that now.”
Ackermann, pictured above, who started his playing career at the Pretoria-based Bulls, joined Gloucester from another South African Super Rugby side Lions in 2017 on a three-year deal and said he’s happy at the club but admitted there were other factors to consider.
Ackermann said: “Any decision you make in life is about more than one person but I just feel we’re at a stage where we’ve got a few things to prove here at Gloucester and we’ll take it week by week.”
Gloucester face Northampton in the Premiership Cup at Kingsholm tomorrow.
SOME of Gloucester’s big guns are set to return for tomorrow’s Premiership Cup clash against Northampton at Kingsholm, writes Robert Iles.
Several members of the senior squad were given a chance to rest after a gruelling first eight weeks of the season but with the squad building back up to the resumption of the Premiership a few more are expected to be involved.
Head coach Johan Ackermann is back leading Gloucester this week after handing the reins to head of academy Richard Whiffin for the games against Wasps and Bristol.
He said: “Individually we’ll look at a lot of guys’ minutes but obviously we want to start integrating a lot of the guys that didn’t play in the last couple of weeks purely because if we go back to the Prem games against Leicester some of the players will have been without rugby for almost a month so we’ll probably give a lot of those guys an opportunity this week for a decent hit out.”
“Also we want to start performing well and keep the momentum going.”
Northampton are also expected to pick a stronger team and make several changes after a short turnaround from their win at Wasps on Sunday.
With clubs taking different approaches from week to week, it has led to some questions over its value or what some people have called ‘the spirit of the competition’, which replaced the Anglo-Welsh Cup.
Asked if it he sees it as a development competition or one that should be taken seriously, Ackermann said: “If you look at the last two weeks we’ve played a lot of youngsters so I can’t sit here and say it’s as high as the European (Champions Cup) and Gallagher Premiership because then people would say, ‘why don’t you play your strongest side’? If you put on a Gloucester shirt, my expectation is you deserve it and you have to represent it with pride so that’s why we went to Bristol and watched the Wasps game as senior management team and we’re constantly looking at players who have shown that character.
“It’s an opportunity for players waiting for game time to show what they’ve learnt and what they can produce.
“Sometimes a player in that competition can play themselves into contention for the Premiership so we add value to it but saying that because in English rugby you only have small groups due to the salary cap, you can’t play your best side in and out for all the competitions.”