Bulls skills guru Phiwe Nomlomo is being talked about as a coach with a big future at Loftus Versfeld and could even be a candidate to coach the Blue Bulls in Currie Cup in the near future.
The 38-year-old Nomlomo was lured to Pretoria by Jake White in 2023 after spending five years at the Sharks in various coaching roles with their United Rugby Championship side.
Nomlomo, who hails from Gonubie in East London, was entrusted to enhance the Bulls’ attack, which has certainly improved from recent season after White stated his side lacked a bit of “X-factor” to compete with previous URC winners, the Stormers.
The Bulls have scored the most points and tries in this season’s edition of the URC, and are ranked second in terms of offloads (106). Their attack is now on par with the best teams in the competition, and they have been using their strike-power with ball in hand to complement their traditional set-piece prowess.
A player such as powerful No 8 Cameron Hanekom is fourth on the URC’s list for offloads, and this has transformed their game on the advantage line, as they attack with power, but also with a lot of nuance.
Backs such as the in-form Embrose Papier, Johan Goosen, David Kriel and Stedman Gans are producing more chances for Spingboks Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie and Willie le Roux to shine.
World Cup-winning coach White deserves credit for his willingness to expand the Bulls playbook this season and the addition of Nomlomo has proved to be a master stroke.
The Bulls players are also enjoying working with the former SA Schools A coach, who is a qualified teacher, which could prompt White to entrust Nomlomo with the Currie Cup gig.
After enjoying back-to-back Currie Cup success during the Covid-19 influenced era in 2021 — the competition was played twice in that year — the Blue Bulls haven’t quite performed at their best in the competition, with former Springbok assistant coach Gert Smal and Edgar Marutlulle not getting the best out of the franchise’s fringe talent in Pretoria.
However, the Bulls have other quality coaches in the union, such as the experienced Gary Gold, backline coach Chris Rossouw, former star flyhalf Kennedy Tsimba and defence coach Jean Tiedt. Andries Bekker and Werner Kruger are also part of the coaching staff.
IOL Sport