diff --git a/tools/prep-apply.sh b/tools/prep-apply.sh
index 1f523ed585..fa5ac9fb0e 100644
--- a/tools/prep-apply.sh
+++ b/tools/prep-apply.sh
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ declare -A INTEGRATION_MODULES
 source $MODULE_ENV_FILE
 
 python3 -m virtualenv -p python3 --system-site-packages /tmp/apply-ansible-env
+# Work around the fact that setuptools~=50 is broken
+/tmp/apply-ansible-env/bin/pip install -U 'setuptools<50'
 /tmp/apply-ansible-env/bin/pip install ansible
 # Install puppet
 ansible_root=$(mktemp -d)