Maligned NRL coach Anthony Seibold delivered the ultimate response to his critics by helping England to a series win over the Wallabies in Australia.
Seibold’s appointment as Eddie Jones’ defence coach raised eyebrows both in England and Australia in the wake of his ugly split with the Brisbane Broncos in 2020.
And the 47-year-old was under severe heat when he returned to Suncorp Stadium for the second Test earlier this month.
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England finished fifth in the 2022 Six Nations and were then downed by 14 man opponents – a 52-21 loss to the Barbarians and a 30-28 defeat to the Wallabies.
But the players stood up under pressure with much improved defensive efforts in England’s 25-17 win in Brisbane and the series-clinching 21-17 triumph in Sydney.
“Seriously, this bloke is an amazing coach,” former Wallaby Morgan Turinui said on Stan Sports’ Between Two Posts.
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“I’ve heard him talk, he’s actually done some presenting at rugby union level two coaching courses and things like that.
“Generous with his time, great with up and coming coaches and I heard him talk a lot about a Melbourne Storm mentality defending their own zone, their own line.
“And look at what England did. I guarantee they’ve got a theme around resisting teams off their own line in defence and that’s what they had to call on, England on the weekend. They had to make more than twice as many tackles as the Wallabies and so many of them, with the series on the line, on their own line.
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“Anthony Seibold, with his experiences in Australian football, fingerprints all over that performance.”
Commentator Sean Maloney said Seibold’s success made the series loss slightly more palatable as a passionate Wallabies fan.
“He’s a terrific fella, a really lovely guy and even though the Wallabies have gone down, it’s nice to see some of the love going to a really decent Aussie as well,” Maloney said.
“For a bloke who went through as much shit as he did, in NRL, so much of it unjustly thrown his way… wildly wrong.”
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