Were Italy’s tactics good for rugby or bad?
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Italy head coach Conor O’Shea has stood firm against the wave of criticism coming towards his side after the Six Nations defeat to England.
“If that’s rugby, I’m going to retire”. We hadn’t got the ball wide in the first half and we wanted to try something different. As soon as you make a tackle, there’s an offside line.
Initially, the England players were baffled.
“I’ll talk to my coaches and see what we need to do, but we’re in a pretty good place”, Jones said.
Eddie Jones’ Grand Slam-chasing side got to grips with the chaos after half-time and eventually ran out comfortable 36-15 winners, but at one point James Haskell could be heard asking referee Romain Poite for clarification on how England might counter Italy’s approach.
The England coach said: “World Rugby are in charge of the shape of the game and I’m sure (chairman) Bill Beaumont will have watched this match and will take some action”. It’s not an anomaly in the law, it’s just a part of the game.
“It wasn’t fair criticism. We might fail, but we won’t fail trying”.
“We will have to play a lot better than we did against Wales and cut out some of the mistakes and tighten up in a few areas”. We have to think differently like we did today.
“It’s hard when something is thrown at you like that; you have to adjust as soon as you can, and we came up with the answers”.
“Look, it’s a tactic that is there to be used”, flanker Peter O’Mahony said. “They will be full of confidence and come down here definitely thinking they can win”.
O’Shea added: “We’re disappointed to lose because after 70 minutes we had given ourselves a chance of history”.
It’s a strategy we’ve seen the Chiefs use is the last two year.
The scots squad noiw feel they want to provide something more for Vern Cotter before he moevs on at the end of the campaign.
Former Ireland full-back O’Shea lamented the lack of praise heaped on Italy, who last November beat South Africa and were prepared to innovate at Twickenham.
He’s had mixed success so far. “I’ve been getting my reward at club level, so it’s great to take that on to the global stage and claim the ball back for the team”.
Allan converted and Italy led an England side, who had won all 16 of their previous Tests, by five points.
The Six Nations Championship will head for another week’s respite before resuming on Friday, March 10, with England scheduled to host third-placed Scotland that Saturday in what promises to be a more testing fixture.
O’Shea confesses he has a “long, hard road ahead”, but is also frustrated that his side isn’t given the respect it deserves on the global stage. “We played to the laws”.
The Australia-born Jones echoed those comments in his post-match interview, says the BBC, drawing a parallel with an infamous incident from the world of cricket. I played rugby a long time ago, I’ve coached rugby.
‘We’re learning at the highest level and hopefully we’ve earned a little bit of respect here today’.
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Italy has a mountain to climb in order to avoid another winless Six Nations campaign, and another dreaded “wooden spoon” as bottom team.
