How headbutt moments forged the Ackermann father-son dynamic

Given the furore around Andy Farrell’s decision to call up his son Owen to the Lions tour of Australia, and then make him midweek captain, father-son, coach/player relationships couldn’t be more topical.

In an interview between former professional player Ben Herring and Johan Ackermann on an episode of the Coaching Culture YouTube show, the new Bulls boss has spoken openly about how that dynamic played out between him and his son Ruan.

Ackermann, who was unveiled as Jake White’s successor at the Bulls earlier this month, coached Ruan at the Lions and Gloucester, and the pair were subjected to the same kind of family bias talk that the Farrells have had to endure.

Ackermann shares his thoughs on Hlekani, Jooste and Pead

Ackermann shares his thoughs on Hlekani, Jooste and Pead

“In the beginning, here in South Africa everyone was saying he was getting picked becuase he is my son etc. etc. Eventually he started to perform really well and it started to go away a bit.

“Then at Gloucester we went together and there was still one or two comments that he only went there because he was my son,” he told former Leicester and Highlanders flanker Herring, who has coached professionally in Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

“That’s why I am glad that when I left, he stayed and he proved himself, to almost nail that thing down and say, okay, he can do it on his own.”

As well as convincing the public that Ruan was in the team purely on merit, the two of them had to work out how to separate the coach/player relationship from the father/son relationship, and Ackermann senior admits there were a few bumps along the way.

“Early on in his career he came out of school to the Lions and then he started to play for us at Super Rugby level, and it gave me a hands-on (opportunity) to develop and invest in his playing career. So that was the big positive,” he said.

“The challenge for us was how do we find that common ground between coaching him but not over-coaching him, in the sense that now it becomes a thing where we never have a father-son relationship, and it is always just coaching, coaching, coaching.

“In the beginning, we had to unfortunately go through those first one or two headbutt moments, where it was too much. So we actually made some boundaries, some ground rules, of, you know, we are not going to talk about the rugby side once we’re done at the Lions and have left the stadium and get back home.

“We’re not going to talk about it unless you ask the question. I am not going to be the one talking about it, saying in training you did this and this and this.

“I had to make it quite clear to him when he set foot in the Lions that I can only evaluate him under the same value system and under the same selection policy – what a back-rower must have – as we did with every other player.

“I couldn’t even give half an inch because the moment I pick him, and there’s a one per cent grey (area), they are going to say it is only because he is your son. So he had to prove himself more.

“When we sat in the coaches selection meeting it wasn’t me that pushed for him to make his debut in Super Rugby. it was Swys (de Bruin) and JP (Ferreira), the assistant coaches.

“They said, ‘you’re hard on him, he deserves his position’.

“So, ja, we had to make the boundaries of when we are going to talk about the game and when are we going to be father and son at home.

“Credit to him, he handled it well and we dealt with it.”

6 FATHER-SON, COACH-PLAYER COMBINATIONS

1. Andy/Owen Farrell
   Having been together with Saracens and England, the two have been reunited again in a rugby sense on the current Lions tour of Australia. The Farrells had toured together with the Lions before – Andy as defence coach and Owen as a player in 2013 – but it’s been very different this time around. As soon as Andy was announced as head coach, one of the main narratives was whether he would pick his out-of-form son. Farrell senior left it until Elliot Daly was injured before calling him up but, even so, it was one of the main talking points of the tour when he did finally arrive.
2. Mike/George Ford
   Another duo from the north steeped in a love for rugby league. Mike and George Ford had Bath purring as an attacking force, one planning the strategy and the other executing it, as Bath reached the Premiership Final in 2015. Many people say that having George in the team is like having another coach on the pitch, given the tactical appreciation he has inherited from his father, who coached at the highest level with Ireland, England and the Lions.
3. Johan/Ruan Ackermann
   Johan was Ruan’s boss at the Lions for a couple of seasons in Super Rugby before the pair embarked on an overseas venture together, joining Gloucester in 2017. Johan left the Cherry & Whites five years ago, to go to Japan, but his son has remained there ever since, clocking up well over 150 appearances.
4. Stuart/Dan Lancaster
   Accusations of nepotism were rife when Stuart Lancaster fetched his son from England to join him in Paris at Racing 92. Lancaster junior had played the bulk of his rugby at Championship level up to to that point, with Leeds and Ealing, with only a short spell at Premiership giants Leicester in between. However, Dan did a reasonable job filling in for the injured Owen Farrell and earned himself a move to Glasgow, where he will come up against his father, the new man in charge at Connacht, in the URC.
5. Dai/Thomas Young
   Forner Wales prop Dai Young coached his son Thomas briefly at Cardiff before signing him for Wasps.”In fairness to him, he saved my career. He offered me a contract when things weren’t going well back home, they were going backwards,” Thomas once said in an interview. The pair returned to Cardiff but Dai’s time at the Arms Park ended acrimoniously, with him being suspended by the club after complaints about his conduct.
6. Jim/Harry Mallinder
   Harry broke into the Saints team whilst his dad was DoR at the club, making his debut in 2014, the same year that the club claimed its first Premiership title. The centre/full-back became a regular fixture in the first team, when not sidelined by injury, and made 83 appearances in seven seasons. He left in 2021 – four years after his dad had been sacked.