Anthony Seibold has confirmed Josh Schuster will play five-eighth next season in his first press conference since being announced as coach of the Manly Sea Eagles.
Seibold fronted the media on Tuesday morning after recently arriving home from England, where he was an assistant to England’s rugby union coach Eddie Jones.
Former Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler was going to move Schuster from the second row to five-eighth next season, hence why Kieran Foran joined the Titans — and Seibold will follow through with that plan.
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Schuster’s desires to play in the halves have been no secret. He played five-eighth in the lower grades but found a home in the second row last year.
The 21-year-old had such a strong season in 2021 that he became the centre of a representative tug of war.
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He was set to be included in Brad Fittler’s extended Blues squad until injury cruelled him and then at the end of the season was named in New Zealand’s preliminary World Cup squad.
Schuster however struggled with injury and form throughout 2022 and found himself dropped to the bench by Round 11 and even left out of the 17 completely in Round 21.
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He fell out of touch of Fittler’s NSW radar and so too the Kiwis’. But did make his international debut for Samoa in a mid-season Test.
With his eye on the No.6 jersey, Schuster made himself unavailable to represent Samoa at the World Cup and got stuck into his own training during the break to ensure he returned for pre-season in the best shape possible.
That application has impressed Seibold.
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“I’ve had a lot to do with Josh over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“He’s started pre-season well, and he’s been consistent with his efforts over the first couple of weeks.
“But that’s the easy part of it.
“The challenge is for every player in the NRL to develop a lot for that grind, particularly in pre-season because it’s 12 weeks of hard work.
“And one thing I do know about pre-seasons if you get it right, individually and collectively, then that does have a transfer to when you start playing good footy.”
