The Bulls' redemption story continues. After a run of seven straight losses, the men from Pretoria have bounced back with three victories on the bounce to put some respect back in the jersey.
In November, the Lions silenced the Loftus Versveld crowd with a win over the Bulls. But they exacted revenge this weekend, running in eight tries to earnan emphatic victory over their cross-Jukskei rivals.
"We wanted to mix it up a bit, and the boys got the balance right," Ackermann told reporters after the match.
"There were one or two opportunities probably out wide as well, but we felt the forwards did well, and we just stuck to that.
"The first few aerial contests went our way, and that's the fine margins of this game.
"There were games in the past that didn't go our way, so you take the wins like that. I'm just proud of the guys, of the effort, because it takes a lot of effort to play as we did. We made a few mistakes back-to-back, but luckily we didn't concede. When we got it going, we really did well.
"I always felt that it was going to happen; we just had to get the passes sticking and get the momentum going.
"The first half exceeded our expectations. We played really well. One or two mistakes, but we bounced back well from that."
The win sees the Bulls move to eighth on the United Rugby Championship table.