Two new appointments, in the forwards and defence, mean Eddie Jones's coaching team to take England through to France 2023 has been finalised
Cockerill and Seibold join England coaching team
England’s coaching team to take them through to the next World Cup in 2023 is now complete. Eddie Jones has put the final pieces of the jigsaw together with the appointments, announced today, of Richard Cockerill and Anthony Seibold.
Cockerill joins as a forwards coach and will work alongside Matt Proudfoot. The former Leicester and England hooker has acquired a reputation as a hard taskmaster during coaching stints at the Tigers, Toulon (consultant’s role) and Edinburgh. As head coach at Leicester, he won Premiership titles in 2009, 2010 and 2013.
Things went sour for Richard Cockerill at Edinburgh (Getty)
He enjoyed some success at Edinburgh – they won their Guinness Pro14 conference as recently as 2019-20 – but the relationship turned sour amid declining results and he left the Scottish outfit by mutual consent this summer.
Seibold has been appointed as England’s defence coach in succession to John Mitchell. He arrives with an impressive CV from Australia, where his most recent full-time role was head coach of Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League.
He was previously head coach at South Sydney Rabbitohs, where he was named the NRL Daily M Coach of the Year in 2018, and counts Manly Sea Eagles, Melbourne Storm and Queensland (State of Origin series) as other former employers.
Seibold’s playing career included spells in England with Hull KR and London Broncos, along with Canberra Raiders and Brisbane Broncos in the NRL. He’s recently been doing some coaching at Newcastle Knights.
“Eddie is one of the leading coaches in world sport and the opportunity to work under him through to the 2023 World Cup in France, along with the other staff, was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” Seibold said.
“The depth of talent and the opportunity to work with the elite players in the English game is something that really excites me going forward. I’m looking forward to the opportunity and the challenge that international rugby presents.”
Eddie Jones looks on at England’s summer International against Canada at Twickenham (Getty Images)
England’s coaching team was looking threadbare after Mitchell’s resignation in July to join Wasps. That has all changed with the appointment of Martin Gleeson, ex-Wasps, as attack coach last month, followed by the arrival of Cockerill and Seibold.
The new coaching team will get their first introduction to the England squad at a mini-camp at The Lensbury on 26-28 September.
England will then begin preparations for their three-Test autumn series with a week’s training in Jersey on 25-29 October. They will be hosted by Jersey Reds and use the facilities at the Strive High Performance Centre, adjacent to the rugby club.
The squad play Tonga on Saturday 6 November (3.15pm), Australia on Saturday 13 November (5.30pm) and South Africa on Saturday 20 November (3.15pm).
England open their autumn campaign against Tonga, who they beat 35-3 at the 2019 World Cup (Getty)
Jones said: “We’re two years from the World Cup so wanted to freshen up our coaching team and get the right people in place for where we want to go – which is to win the World Cup.
“We’ve added Richard to the team to work with Matt to create a dominant forward pack. He’s a former England player, has great coaching experience and comes in as a well-rounded, mature, driven English coach.
“Anthony is a coach that I’ve had a relationship with since 2019 and have followed his career closely. He thinks deeply about the game. John Mitchell did a great job improving us in defence and Anthony will add further nuances to the good system that he has put into place.
“It’s an exciting time for rugby with the new season starting, supporters back in the stadium and the return of the grass-roots game this weekend (there are Pitch Up for Rugby events around the country). We’re looking forward to getting the squad back together and growing this England team.”
Tickets for England v Tonga go on general sale on Wednesday 8 September, priced from £37 for adults and at £22 for children via EnglandRugby.com/Tickets.
Tickets for England v Australia and England v South Africa are on sale now to the rugby family. The games will also be live on Amazon Prime.
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