England plan to ‘take it to ABs’

A confident England assistant coach Anthony Seibold has declared his team ‘‘will go after’’ the All Blacks at Twickenham this weekend.

Seibold has backed up earlier comments by head coach Eddie Jones who felt the All Blacks, working through a development phase leading into next year’s World Cup, were ‘‘there for the taking’’.

Asked if he was confident England could win to back up their semifinal victory over New Zealand the last time they met at the 2019 World Cup, Seibold didn’t hold back, believing there was a strong mindset for this fixture under Jones’ guidance.

‘‘Yeah, I really am,’’ he said of a potential victory at their London HQ.

‘‘Statistically, the facts are that New Zealand have won 78% of games against England, so if you look at statistics England are expected to lose and New Zealand are expected to win.

‘‘But in Eddie’s time here the group has played New Zealand twice . . . had a close loss a couple of years ago in 2018 and then won the semifinal the last time the two teams matched up, so we want to go after New Zealand this week, we don’t want to wait for New Zealand to come to Twickenham and come after us.

‘‘We want to go after them and the comments from Eddie are a good indication of where we want to take our training week and how we want to start the game.

‘‘We want to start the game fast, we want to take it to the New Zealand side.’’

England used a dominant display from their forwards backed up by astute kicking and well-timed running to down the All Blacks in Yokohama.

Expect a similar approach on Sunday though England see improvements being made to the All Blacks after a difficult year.

Australian Seibold – who will finish up his role as defence coach after the test against world champions South Africa the following week – paid tribute to the way Joe Schmidt had come on board to influence the All Blacks attack in a rocky season under head coach Ian Foster.

‘‘There have been some noticeable changes since Joe has taken on a position,’’ said Seibold, who will take over coaching the Manly Sea Eagles in the NRL.

‘‘I feel as though if you look at the New Zealand style of play, particularly early phases, there is certainly a deliberate pattern to how they play.

‘‘They certainly try and create momentum and they have got some really good ball carriers.’’

After a poor start to the season when they lost a home series to Ireland for the first time, followed by a rollercoaster Rugby Championship campaign that eventually ended in triumph, the All Blacks are on a six-test winning streak heading into this game against England.