Broncos coach fumes over treatment of Boyd
BRONCOS coach Anthony Seibold is fed up with “relentless” attacks on Darius Boyd and has come out in defence of his besieged skipper ahead of tonight’s blockbuster against Penrith at Suncorp Stadium.
Boyd’s offensive game has come under fire since his move from fullback to five-eighth six weeks ago, with the captain making just one run for two metres in Brisbane’s 18-14 derby defeat of the Cowboys last week. In the past fortnight, Boyd has made two runs for seven metres in the famous No.6 jumper once worn by Broncos legend Darren Lockyer, who has urged the 32year-old to attack the line.
Now Palm Beach Currumbin junior Boyd faces another daunting assignment, with the five-eighth convert to oppose one of the code’s most experienced pivots tonight in Penrith’s NSW Origin matchwinner James Maloney.
Seibold has had a gutful of the criticism directed at Boyd, justifying his meagre runs by hinting at the attacking efforts of Roosters five-eighth Luke Keary, who made one run for four metres against Canberra last week.
“Everyone needs to back off on Darius,” Seibold fired in defence of his skipper.
“If there’s opportunities to run the footy, he will, but I will say this – Darius for whatever reason seems to be an easy target.
“I had a look through the competition from last weekend. There is an Australian No.6 (Keary) playing for a team in Sydney who only made four metres last week and he missed five tackles and not one thing was said in the media.
“His team won and our team won. Because Darius has only done one run, he’s been crucified all week from what I understand.”
Since undertaking the biggest positional shift of his career, interchanging with new fullback Anthony Milford, Boyd has lost one of six games at five-eighth. Seibold accepts that the Boyd-Jake Turpin scrumbase alliance needs some polish.
However, the union was only ever a tactical stop-gap measure, with hooker Turpin operating as a makeshift No.7 after halfbacks Tom Dearden and Sean O’Sullivan suffered injuries. Turpin has since performed admirably, scoring the match-winner against the Cowboys last week.