Hougie brings energy to Blitzbokke

The 15-man convert played more rugby than he would expected in his first World Sevens tournament. That was mainly due to injuries to Cecil Afrika and Werner Kok – but both Hougaard and Stormers captain Juan de Jong played well and looked comfortable in the Sevens setup.

Much like his influence in the 15-man game, Hougaard was a busy customer in the UAE and coach Neil Powell said he brought a lot of energy to the side.

“Hougie is obviously experienced in fifteens but I think he brings a nice vibe and energy to the team,” the coach said. “He’s a ‘go-getter’; a guy who will fight for every tackle and centimetre out there. He’s got good feet, good skill but I think he probably needs a little bit more experience and game time. I think the positive thing about Werner and Cecil’s injuries is that fact that we could give the guys a lot of game time and it actually worked out nicely.”

“We need to get these news players in our setup onto the same level as the experienced guys like Kyle and Cecil as quickly as possible and the only way we can do that is by giving them game time,” Powell added.

Powell is also relishing Hougaard’s versatility in being able to cover all positions in the Blitzbokke’s backline – but hasn’t quite boxed him into a specific position.

“He will fill that role of a sweeper and back-up wing for us going into all the tournaments. When we select a team, we usually have a player like that in the team. It would normally be a guy like Stephan Dippenaar that can cover flyhalf and centre or somebody who can cover centre and wing. We look to get one versatile player like that into our squad of 12 so he is definitely the guy that can fulfil that role,” Powell said.

Meanwhile skipper Kyle Brown said the 15-man converts were settled into the squad before the Dubai leg and took baby steps in integrating themselves into the team.

“The settling component was done before we even left for Dubai and that was the most important thing for us. We spoke about how the players joining in were going to have pass the foundation culture phase first before they were accepted to any of that," Brown said. “We had eight players in camp and they were all fantastic. The best part of it was that they knew to begin at level one, they didn’t try jump in at the top, they were all good sponges for knowledge and tried to soak up as much as possible.”

“Juan and Hougie were awesome; they were moved around the field all weekend. If we’re going to talk about some goals we had for the weekend, it was to make sure they were tested as much as possible. They started the 2^nd, 5^th and 6^th game and if you can find any instance over the last ten years where two individual players starting in their first tournament have done that, I’d be very surprised. For us, that is a goal achieved, we made sure we put them in at the highest level and made sure that they were tested – I think you will see a lot more of that this season,” he concluded.

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