Sandile Ngcobo has wasted no time in putting the academy players to work during his first day as Blitzboks head coach on Thursday morning. DYLAN JACK reports.

Ngcobo was confirmed as the new Springbok Sevens head coach, taking over from Neil Powell, with former Blitzboks captain Philip Snyman appointed as the new assistant coach.

MORE: Ngcobo to lead Blitzboks into new era

“We trained this morning, so I said ‘welcome back to work’. That’s the first thing I said,” chuckled Ngcobo, when asked about his first words to the squad during a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

“We have already trained and are back at it. The cornerstone is our academy, so we need to look after them while the seniors are resting. They are excited. The guys are hungry and we want to get the whole squad hungry again.

“There are certainly mixed emotions. It was a roller-coaster after this weekend, but there is certainly some excitement for the journey ahead.”

A former player, the 33-year-old Ngcobo previously headed up the Sevens Academy and assisted Paul Delport with the Springbok Women’s Sevens at the Commonwealth Games and Rugby World Cup Sevens in recent months.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the blueprint for Ngcobo’s plan is based on the Sevens Academy.

“We had this conversion – myself and Philip – this morning. It all boils down to the academy. If we can scout the right individuals that the system needs, we have a formula and we know exactly which individuals we need in specific areas.

“That will guarantee us another four to six years [of success].”

There will be plenty of expectation after an era which saw the Blitzboks taken to the next level, winning 22 Sevens Series tournaments, three Sevens Series titles and two Commonwealth Games gold medals.

However, Ngcobo is seeing the success of the previous era as a positive when it comes to implementing his plan for the Blitzboks.

“This game of sevens is actually very beautiful because it keeps evolving every week. We are learning as time goes by. We learned a couple of things this weekend,” said Ngcobo.

“We are not going to change much. We don’t need to stamp our authority, when there is already a system and a culture in place.

“As the game evolves, we will tweak a few things, but there are certain processes that we have and will continue with.”

Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images