The Vodacom Bulls confirmed that they have recruited Sharks assistant coach Phiwe Nomlomo and former Cheetahs and Bulls flyhalf Kennedy Tsimba to run a skills hub meant to address the union's skills gap, from franchise to schoolboy level.
According to news24.com Nomlomo began working at Loftus this week following his resignation at the Cell C Sharks. Nomlomo held the briefs of skills, off-the-ball work and kicking duties at the Sharks.
Bulls director of rugby Jake White explained to news24.com how the skills centre is supposed to work.
"Skills is a massive part of where we are as a union," he said. "Everyone talks about skills coaches and everyone thinks they have an idea. But a skills coach who carries two rugby balls around and warms players up is not a skills coach.
"We want to try and take our skills development and individual skills improvement seriously, and these two guys are very good at teaching skills. There's a big thing in Australia called skills acquisition, they are the next step [in that direction] for us."
"They're going to be coaching all the players in the union skills which won't just be catching and passing, they'll be anything skills-related, like throwing or lifting…
"They might not necessarily be teaching it but they’ll be co-ordinating it. So, for argument's sake, if we get a thrower in to teach throwers how to throw, they might not be doing it, but they'll be monitoring which guys are throwing, how many points they get and that type of thing.
"So it's going to be measurable, what I want is a situation where you come in for 30 minutes and do skills drills and they give you a report card on your game."