Rugby is a sport. And sport is all about outplaying, and to a great extent outsmarting, your opponents. And Eddie Jones of all people should know that.
So I don’t understand the England coach’s rants following England’s 36-15 Six Nations win over Italy at the weekend at all. I mean, the breakdown tactic the Italians put on show at Twickenham was just plain brilliant.
Brilliant, but not nearly as bizarre as the Aussie made it out to be. Connor O’Shea’s men simply exploited the tackle rule. If anyone should be upset, it should be the Italians. Upset at the English players’ complete ignorance when it comes to the laws.
The tactic used by the Italians was smart and simple: they didn’t contest possession after the tackler rolled away, so no ruck was formed. Therefore, the visitors were free to move past the tackle area without having to worry about being penalised for being offside. And although they couldn’t tackle England scrumhalf Danny Care, they could legally block off his passing options.
Another smart thing that the Italians did was consulting referee Romain Poite prior to kick-off (who remarked "I’m a referee, not a coach" when flanker James Haskell and skipper Dylan Hartley asked for clarification on the manoeuvre).
And it’s not like this tactic is new at all.
Last year, I wrote about how the Chiefs used this strategy to great advantage. It was also used by the Wasps in a European Champions Cup match against Toulouse. And Australian master fetcher David Pocock also made used of it when the Wallabies faced Ireland last year.
But England seemed to be completely mystified, especially in the first half, by what was going on.
Which was weird because , like I said, it had been done before. So another thing I find rather strange is the fact that it is now being claimed that defence coach Brendan Venter masterminded this scheme with Italy. He might have planted the seed in the Italy camp, but he by no means “masterminded” it.
Back to the point – instead of moaning about Italy’s play, England could have countered, which they kind of did. They carried straight through the middle in the second half and that resulted in a greater attacking platform.
And, in typical Eddie style – not wanting to be beaten – his charges used the “anti-tactic” themselves in the second half (which makes his post-match blast even more ridiculous).
Following the game, Jones said: “That wasn’t rugby today, if that’s rugby I’m going to retire, I don’t want to be involved in that,”
No mate, that was rugby. In fact, that right there was the implementation of rugby innovation at its best. There is absolutely nothing wrong with exploring the boundaries of the laws to gain a tactical advantage.
So the sooner Eddie – and everybody else who’s against those kind of tactics – can adapt, the better.