Bulls coach Johan Ackermann has picked four Springboks in the team to take on the All Blacks in their third Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry match at Loftus on Saturday but warned they are not fully game-ready. “We definitely won’t be match-fit or match-sharp, but we try to be as well prepared as we can,” he said at the stadium on Thursday. Veteran fullback Willie le Roux will play his 20th match against New Zealand (he’s been on the winning side with the Boks six times with one draw) alongside captain Marcell Coetzee, scrumhalf Embrose Papier and flyhalf Curwin Bosch. Bosch is also one of three new signings in the match 23, with the other two being Hanro Liebenberg and Thaakir Abrahams, who have all returned from abroad. “It’s a great privilege to play against the All Blacks, and we really have huge respect for who they are, so obviously it’s a great occasion,” Ackermann stressed. “But in the context of where we want to be — to play a bit better against them — we’re way off because our season went so long until the URC final, and then we had to give the guys some form of break.“We also struggled with a lot of players who got ill because it’s the time of year, so it wasn’t a perfect build-up.”You’re going to have the ball for parts of the game and then you’re going to be without the ball and that’s when the All Blacks will really dictate the tempo of the game and unfortunately we just have to live with that. How long we’re going to be able to do that, that’s the challenge— Johan Ackermann, Bulls coach The Bulls, who should have been in their conditioning phase, are in their fourth week back preparing for the URC season that kicks off on September 25, with a warm-up against the Stormers scheduled for September 11. To date they have had no contact sessions. “You can train all you like; that contact takes it out of you — the fall, getting up again — so we’ll be short on that sharpness,” Ackermann warned. “But we’re going to see how far we can push them, and who knows?”The coach admitted there was no way to compensate for that lack of match preparedness. “You’re going to have the ball for parts of the game, and then you’re going to be without the ball, and that’s when the All Blacks will really dictate the tempo of the game, and unfortunately we just have to live with that. “How long we’re going to be able to do that, that’s the challenge.”But Ackermann said the match could be a useful tool for his preparation for the URC, which is his team’s main focus for the 2026/27 season. “We’re going to put our own little goals into place. It is early in the pre-season … we had to fast-track everything, but we want to see certain things that we’ve practised, and if we can do that and do it against one of the best teams in the world, that will give us a great foundation to work from.“Obviously if we can win, we’ll win. But if we can walk away and say, ‘OK, these are the things we need to work on; this worked and this didn’t work, [then] how can we adjust that and tweak that before the URC starts,’ that’s probably the biggest focus.”Ackermann said the new signings, along with Hakeem Kunene, are slotting into the Bulls system well. “All four of them were amazing, the way they settled in with the team. You can see they’ve been around the block; they bring a lot of experience and good energy. They’re just players who are easy to coach.”The Bulls team for Saturday (15-1): Willie le Roux, Thaakir Abrahams, Stedman Gans, Harold Vorster, Stravino Jacobs, Curwin Bosch, Embrose Papier, Jeandre Rudolph, Hanro Liebenberg, Marcell Coetzee (capt), JF van Heerden, Ruan Vermaak, Francois Klopper, Juann Else, Alu Tshakweni. Replacements: Juandre Schoeman, Sti Sithole, Khuta Mchunu, Reinhardt Ludwig, Mpilo Gumede, Paul de Wet, Katlego Letebele, Hakeem Kunene.