Six Nations 2018: Conor O'Shea wants more credit for Italy after last year's 'overreaction' to no-ruck tactic

Eddie Jones promised to retire if 'The Fox' tactic was repeat after last year's Six Nations clash, but Italy coach O'Shea believes it was just another way of detracting from his players' performance

Conor O'Shea feels there was an 'overreaction' to his tactics following the defeat by England in the Six Nations (Getty)

Conor O’Shea believes there was “an overreaction” to Italy’s no-ruck tactics against England last season, and expressed his frustration that the ensuing furore took away any credit that his players deserved for causing England so many problems within the rules.

England head coach Eddie Jones threatened to retire in the wake of the Six Nations encounter, having seen his side outsmarted by an Italy side that they had been expected to beat comfortably. England did eventually run out 36-15 winners at Twickenham, but Italy pushed the defending champions closer than ever before as they entered the final 12 minutes separated by just two points.

Ahead of this weekend’s opening round of fixtures where Jones and O’Shea will go head-to-head once again in Rome, the Irish Italy coach has addressed what happened in that encounter and why he was disappointed not only with the reaction about the approach his side took, but also the immediate rule clarification by World Rugby that means the same cannot happen again this weekend.

“Listen, I thought there was an overreaction last year,” O’Shea said. “It was 17-15 in the 68th minute. Again. 17-15 is an interesting scoreline for us. Twice.

“We had a scrum around the 10m line, we lost focus and concentration for that one scrum. We were pushed off it, they got a penalty, they kicked it into the corner, then another penalty and in slow-mo I saw Danny Care tapping and going on one of his quick taps that I’ve not seen many times in my life with him,” the former Harlequins coach added, having developed seen Care score those type of tries throughout his time at the Twickenham Stoop.

“And that was the game, that moment. I think people started looking at the five or six times we just played to the rules and did something different. But that was actually a game of rugby we were very competitive in. As opposed to the whole focus being on one thing.

“What frustrated me was we’d actually played good rugby in the match and didn’t get the credit for it.”

Italy have never beaten England in their 23 previous meetings, with their best result coming in the form of two four-point defeats in 2008 and 2012. One major part of appointing O’Shea as head coach – beyond his plan to radically improve the state of Italian rugby across the board – is his genuine belief that this side can continue to improve to a level where they are consistently competitive in the Six Nations – but the Irishman is fully aware that is not yet the case.

“I believe you can win any game at any time; it doesn’t matter what sport, because it is two teams,” he explained. “If they play to their best and we play to our best – they win. Fact. We go to Ireland the following week; they play to their best, we play to our best – they win.

“So, what do we do? We have to make sure we play to our absolute maximum and maybe take a few risks in how we play.”

O'Shea believes Italy deserve more credit for the quality of their play in such scenarios (Getty)

That’s exactly what Italy did last year. As England struggled to work out how they could negate the tactic of scrum-half Edoardo Gori appearing in the channel between nine and 10, Italy were taking full advantage of every bounce of the ball that went their way – Guivanbattista Venditti collecting a ricocheted penalty off the upright to score a try on half-time – before Michele Campagnaro stood up three English defenders on his way to scoring their second try just short of the hour mark. With 12 minutes to go, Italy were threatening one of the biggest upsets in Six Nations history, not least because England at that stage were still unbeaten under Jones, only for two Jack Nowell tries and a Ben Te’o score to take the result out of reach in a final flurry.

“People came to Twickenham thinking 100 points,” added O’Shea. “The mental resilience of our players, these are the things that always give me hope because we had a really tough day against Ireland in Rome, and for our team to come out and have the inner strength and belief to put in a performance like that [at Twickenham] two weeks later, when everyone was just saying ‘you’re rubbish’, that’s what I thought should have been focussed on.”

A defiant O’Shea used his post-match press conference that day to hammer home his opinion that Italy needed to change something up in order to stand a chance against England. World Rugby felt the same, as a rule amendment came last summer that will prevent ‘The Fox’ tactic of leaving a player on the other side of the tackle as long as there is no ruck formed.

Edoardo Gori caused England multiple problems in the Six Nations last season (Getty)

“I thought the clarification to the law, after, was done too hastily,” said O’Shea, “because it was a law clarification that led to a game with more contact in it now. And it didn’t need to be tinkered with because we didn’t do it that much – and you couldn’t do it that often! That’s the fact of it.

“No, my frustration was it takes away from what these guys do – win or lose, I’m incredibly proud of what these fellas are fighting for and what I’m seeing develop in front of us at the moment, in some of these young kids that are coming in at the moment. We’ll learn a lot in the Six Nations this year because it’s unique.”