Italy Exploited An Insane Rugby Loophole, Enraging England

These tactics performed by Italy left the England coach Eddie Jones furious and threatened to resign if anything like this happened again in the future.

The Red Rose trailed 10-5 at the break but were able to recover in the second half to win 36-15, securing a bonus-point victory in the process to climb to the top of the Six Nations standings.

England coach Eddie Jones was seething as a struggling Italy, defying all pre-match predictions, led the Grand Slam champions 10-5 at half-time in Sunday’s Six Nations worldwide at Twickenham after repeatedly refusing to form rucks.

“What riled me is that when England beat South Africa last year then it’s brilliant and when we beat them last year everyone says they are rubbish”.

“If that’s rugby then I’m going to retire”.

England required a long time to get to grips with the situation, with French referee Romain Poite at one stage telling them: “I’m the referee, not the coach, you have to find a solution”, after flanker James Haskell asked for clarification.

England came out firing with quickfire tries for Danny Care and Elliot Daly but Michele Campagnaro blasted through some lightweight defending to get Italy back within two points.

“I am very lucky that we’ve just got a fantastic bunch of guys. I don’t know”, Beaumont told the Daily Mail.

Their decision not to compete at the breakdown, leaving no offside line, provoked a huge response from coaches and players. Whether or not they’ve discussed this thing – I would be very surprised if they haven’t. But Poite’s handling of events never previously seen on a rugby pitch – at least to this degree – was exemplary and a masterclass in communication with players.

“It is called a Test match for a reason and we have been tested and you always want to learn”. We sussed it out pretty quickly but we did’t act on it quick enough and it took until half time to really clear our minds and go out with a clear mind of what we needed to do. “We just need to make sure we’re quicker next time”.

Legal or not, World Rugby is now under pressure to change the rules and close the loophole that allowed Italy to nearly pull off the upset.

“I’d done a bit of kicking before back in my league days, but I wasn’t expecting it”, Robinson said to the SMH.

Owens said it is a referee’s job to educate squads on any changes to the rule and the Welshman is confident the England team would have been up to speed on the ruck laws. We’re full of respect for them today and they proved very hard to break down.

England coach Eddie Jones tried to get an early blow in against Scotland by questioning whether they could back up “their big talk” in next month’s Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham. I haven’t played rugby league so I haven’t experienced that but have played sevens and the Wasps boys had a bit of experience having played Toulouse who did a similar sort of thing.

“And I’m gutted that we finished the game off the way we did”.

However, the overriding reaction in the British media and from former players was that Italy’s disruptive tactic was an example of clever coaching rather than a blight on the game.