Eddie Jones hire Seibold gives his view on rugby union in England

Recently exited England defence coach Anthony Siebold has given his take on his time under Eddie Jones and England.

Seibold joined Jones’ coaching team in 2021 after a spell coaching in Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL). His most recent role before switching to rugby union was as head coach of the Brisbane Broncos.

He was previously head coach at South Sydney Rabbitohs, where he was named the NRL Daily M coach of the year in 2018 and has coached at a number of clubs including Manly Sea Eagles, Melbourne Storm and Queensland in the State of Origin series.

Seibold’s playing career included spells in England with Hull KR and London Broncos, along with Canberra Raiders and Brisbane Broncos in the NRL.

Speaking to retired English rugby league great James Graham on The Bye Round podcast, Seibold said he was taken aback by how well-resourced he was while working for the RFU and how big the game is.

“I sort of had a relationship with Eddie for five years. He’s a massive NRL fan and South Sydney in particular. He tells me stories about the days when he used to go to the SCG with his dad, the Dragons play the Bunnies there, and Saturday afternoons as a kid. He’s come through playing league. He got into rugby in high school. He’s a massive supporter of rugby league.

“We started doing some shared learning [in 2021]. Then when I finished up at the Broncos he was the first to offer me a role. About two weeks later he said I’d love for you to do some consulting for me on some special projects, he called it.

“For about eight months before I went full-time with him I was doing consulting for Eddie. I was looking at rugby, with a rugby league lense. Like imagine you are country rugby league against Ireland, how would you break them down? How would you defend their shapes.”

Siebold eventually came on full-time as defence coach when John Mitchell left for Wasps having apparently had enough of working under Jones.

“It’s incredible, I’ve got to say I didn’t realise how big rugby (union) was in England, I had an inkling from having spent time in England as a player and when I first started coaching, but every game at Twickenham had 82,000 so it’s like an Origin game every single test match that’s probably the closest way I can describe.

“You come into the ground [Twickenham] and pull the bus up and there’s just thousands and thousands of people.

“Then we went and played in Paris, I brought my wife over for that game. There were 83,000 in Paris. I’d never heard a noise like it. The crazy French supporters were going beserk because they were going for a Grand Slam in Six Nations.

“Went to Edinburgh in the Six Nations. There were 65,000 at the game, getting abused by Scottish supporters as we were walking into the ground. It was an event every week, it was like Origin every single week, every Test.

“I did 15 Tests with England and it was an Origin-like experience every build-up.”

Seibold was also taken about by how well-resourced the team were.

“You don’t want for anything, it’s a very professional set-up. We had everything. Our own chef, our own security. It’s elite level sport at the very very highest level and then Eddie with his attention to detail, it was a fantastic experience,” said Seibold. “It’s very, very well resourced because it’s elite level sport. It’s a worldwide game.

“The thing that I noticed was that the best eight or nine teams, I was fortunate enough to coach against all ten top-ranked sides and probably the top seven teams can beat each other on any given day.

“There’s a really big cluster of teams. The first team to break that cluster has a really good chance of going on and winning the Rugby World Cup.”