It is midnight in the home of Phiwe Nomlomo. One of the head coaches at Loftus Versfeld is doing what he often does at this quiet hour. He is sitting with a notebook and writing down ideas.
Specific ideas for his players, and more general ideas on how to implement hockey players’ ability to move a ball so quickly across the field into rugby.
“I have a notebook on the side of my bed and the best time is around midnight where the mind is clear and you’re sitting on your own, and that’s where the good thoughts start to come in. I write all of that down,” says Nomlomo, who after working under White in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship last season was given the reigns to lead the Vodacom Bulls’ Carling Currie Cup team this year.
If Jake White, the Director of Rugby at the Vodacom Bulls and the man who brought Nomlomo to Loftus, ever wanted someone who matches his intensity and passion for the game, he may well have found it.
Brought in as a skills coach to work with the Bulls in last season’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign as part of White’s overall vision for the union, Nomlomo is indeed a symbol of the excellence White seeks in all facets, including coaching.
For Nomlomo, something White said to him when they first spoke drives him every single day in his coaching, and in those midnight idea sessions.
“When I first joined the Bulls, Jake told me clearly we’re about winning and everything we do is aimed at winning. The easy part of being told who we are and what we’re about is that the expectation is out there and you know clearly what it is. You don’t have to put any pressure on the players because everybody here knows exactly what’s expected of them.
“That’s a beauty for me. It suits my personality and coaching style. That’s where I want to live. So everything we do here - whether it’s rugby on the field or table tennis or chess in the team room – I want to be on the right side of that,” says Nomlomo.
HUGE RESPECT FOR WHITE
The man who started his coaching career at Selborne College and then worked with the Kings, the SA Rugby Academy and the Hollywoodbets Sharks before he joined the Bulls has immense respect for White and his vision.
“I never take for granted what it means to be here at the Bulls and working for someone like Jake White. He has seen the world and we all know how successful he’s been. But what he imparts to me is what people don’t see. I see Jake as a father, as a coach, as a director, as a mentor. I feel like I can talk to him about anything – whether it’s rugby, coaching or my personal life. He’s been massive for me. The energy that he still has is phenomenal. He still wants to win. He has this insatiable hunger and desire to win. That’s why I feel like I’m at the best place I could be right now.
“The Bulls is something special. You don’t know it until you are here at Loftus. The franchise is in a good place and my work is made a lot easier by the quality of people that I work with. Also, being involved in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship gave me such good preparation in terms of understanding the players and just being able to observe and see how each player wants to be challenged and where he fits in. That helped a lot.”
DUAL FOCUS
And he’s also relishing the dual role of trying to win one competition while at the same time helping to build the kind of squad depth the Bulls will need for the upcoming Vodacom United Rugby Championship season and the Investec Champions Cup.
“I’m really enjoying that dual focus. I sit daily with Jake and we discuss everything from players to systems and his big vision for the Bulls. Everyone is talking about squad depth at the moment, but when we chat we talk about the quality of the squad. It’s one thing having massive player numbers, but another if you have no quality,”
“We have really good rugby players in our system. All credit must go to Jake because he is attracting players with such good character. That makes Loftus a great place to work because players come to training happy and, whether they make the starting line-up or not, they know they have value here.
“When a player on the fringes knows his opportunity will come, and his best is to give his best at every single practice, then life becomes a lot easier for the team as a whole. The underpinning part of any campaign is standards.”
The standard was set for Nomlomo in his very first conversation with White.
And clearly it’s a standard he’s not just happy meeting, but wants to exceed.