Shades of 2007 Super Rugby final as Sharks and Bulls lock horns once more

WHEN Bulls coach Johan Ackermann visits Kings Park on Saturday evening for his team’s United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter with the Sharks, he will have memories of one of the toughest times he has had in rugby.

- MIKE GREENAWAY

BULLS forward Jan-Hendrik Wessels will look to make an impact off the bench as he returns from a nine-week suspension when they face the Sharks on Saturday in Durban.

(BackpagePix)

And it will be a memory shared with his opposite number, JP Pietersen — the new coach of the Sharks.

Ackermann and Pietersen were in the same Sharks team that contrived to lose the 2007 Super Rugby final that ultimately went the way of Victor Matfield’s Bulls.

Ackermann, ahead of Saturday’s crunch clash with the coastal side (6pm kickoff), says that game continues to haunt him.

“The 2007 Super Rugby final still sticks in my mind,” the Bulls coach said.

“That match was so intense and a fantastic spectacle in front of a sold-out Kings Park crowd. We thought we had won it with a minute to go, but everyone knows what happened... History had something different in store for us that day.”

History tells us that the Sharks imploded in the final minutes, allowing Bryan Habana to score the title-winning try.

Ackermann says that his experience on the Sharks team, coached by Dick Muir and John Plumtree, shapes his expectations for what to expect on Saturday evening, with a 6pm kickoff.

“I played with JP in that game, and now he is the coach of the Sharks,”