Autumn Nations Cup

[JP14]

"Fiji have confirmed that a player who returned a positive test for Covid-19 is now isolated, and chief executive John O’Connor said the group are awaiting results of final testing ahead of the game."

From Tigers website.

[Scott1]

Anti rugby.........maybe but they played in the rules and rattled England so stopped England from playing an open flowing game.

Still comfortably beaten though so in all it was a complete waste of time. Added to a dreadful spectacle to begin with and the Italians wouldve learned nothing.

It was a legal tactic that worked very well against a staggeringly stupid England for far longer than anyone would have anticipated. Don't blame the Italians for making a laughing stock of the English team.

Didn’t work at all,they still lost! Lost a lot of respect too with that pathetic performance,maybe they should’ve tried to you know,win the game perhaps?! Anti rugby at its finest ,didn’t work ,they still lost. We move on

[Robespierre]

This weekend's France v Fiji match has been cancelled due to outbreaks of covid among the Fiji squad.
The repercussions could be that Fiji may be dropped from the tournament. No decision has been made ..... yet.
This probably means that the French squad can go back to their clubs - good news for Toulouse who haven't won a match since they've been missing their top players.

[h's dad]

Still comfortably beaten though so in all it was a complete waste of time. Added to a dreadful spectacle to begin with and the Italians wouldve learned nothing.

It was a legal tactic that worked very well against a staggeringly stupid England for far longer than anyone would have anticipated. Don't blame the Italians for making a laughing stock of the English team.

Didn’t work at all,they still lost! Lost a lot of respect too with that pathetic performance,maybe they should’ve tried to you know,win the game perhaps?! Anti rugby at its finest ,didn’t work ,they still lost. We move on

What a stupid and ignorant statement. Pundits were predicting a record England win. As it was, the Italian tactic kept the score of the competition winners to less than the average score against, in terms of the competitor countries, a very poor Italy. It worked beyond all expectation and showed up England.

[JP14]

Nothing officially confirmed yet, this is just the French press of Midi Olympique and L'Equipe stating that it has been cancelled.

[JP14]

In response to comments about the 'Ruckgate' match, it's true that, when Eddie Jones had promised to take Italy "to the cleaners", the tactic did prevent an 80-0 drubbing some were predicting. However the long-term impact of the game was merely a change of laws by World Rugby to stop it happening again because quite frankly it wasn't rugby and I remember nearly wanting to launch the TV out of the window watching it.

Yes England were poor and it took them too long to adapt, but at the end of the day it achieved very little for Italy except for preventing a cricket score and social media notoriety.

Sidenote: I believe that game was the last time that Dan Cole scored a try.

[h's dad]

Yes, because I would have thought going into a game (certainly at professional international level) without thoughts about trying to win the game is wrong on all fronts, regardless of who you are and the opposition you are playing. Perhaps they did misguidedly think it might actually win the game and I suspect a more switched on side than England at the time would have made mincemeat of the tactics way before 40 minutes, but ultimately it was futile and misguided. So yes, it was a bad idea. Utimately it did noting for them and proved nothing and they haven't empouyed that or similar tactics since. Personally I think it may have been more of an ego trip for Conor O'Shea to get himself noticed.

Besides which, England from time to time don't exactly need the opposition to help them look stupid....

I don't think O'Shea's team talk included the phrase 'we're trying not to win the game'. The non-engagement was designed to throw the opposition, possible sneak possession and launch an attack on an opposition out of defensive position. It was not originated by Italy, I believe it emanates from New Zealand. It's just never worked for 40 minutes and made an international team look as if they didn't know how to play before.

[Scott1]

It was a legal tactic that worked very well against a staggeringly stupid England for far longer than anyone would have anticipated. Don't blame the Italians for making a laughing stock of the English team.

Didn’t work at all,they still lost! Lost a lot of respect too with that pathetic performance,maybe they should’ve tried to you know,win the game perhaps?! Anti rugby at its finest ,didn’t work ,they still lost. We move on

What a stupid and ignorant statement. Pundits were predicting a record England win. As it was, the Italian tactic kept the score of the competition winners to less than the average score against, in terms of the competitor countries, a very poor Italy. It worked beyond all expectation and showed up England.

England won,Italy embarrassed themselves! Anti rugby at its finest. Terrible attitude to have! Showed up nothing,didn’t work beyond any expectation. They lost,we move on.

[h's dad]

In response to comments about the 'Ruckgate' match, it's true that, when Eddie Jones had promised to take Italy "to the cleaners", the tactic did prevent an 80-0 drubbing some were predicting. However the long-term impact of the game was merely a change of laws by World Rugby to stop it happening again because quite frankly it wasn't rugby and I remember nearly wanting to launch the TV out of the window watching it.

Yes England were poor and it took them too long to adapt, but at the end of the day it achieved very little for Italy except for preventing a cricket score and social media notoriety.

Sidenote: I believe that game was the last time that Dan Cole scored a try.

I didn't launch the TV; I was shouting the obvious solution to the stunningly dim English players. It didn't need a rule change - just pick and go with nobody in front of you until they stop it. Which would be one phase.

[h's dad]

Didn’t work at all,they still lost! Lost a lot of respect too with that pathetic performance,maybe they should’ve tried to you know,win the game perhaps?! Anti rugby at its finest ,didn’t work ,they still lost. We move on

What a stupid and ignorant statement. Pundits were predicting a record England win. As it was, the Italian tactic kept the score of the competition winners to less than the average score against, in terms of the competitor countries, a very poor Italy. It worked beyond all expectation and showed up England.

England won,Italy embarrassed themselves! Anti rugby at its finest. Terrible attitude to have! Showed up nothing,didn’t work beyond any expectation. They lost,we move on.

It didn't work? What do you think the score would have been if England hadn't been thoroughly confused for 40 minutes?

[Scott1]

What a stupid and ignorant statement. Pundits were predicting a record England win. As it was, the Italian tactic kept the score of the competition winners to less than the average score against, in terms of the competitor countries, a very poor Italy. It worked beyond all expectation and showed up England.

England won,Italy embarrassed themselves! Anti rugby at its finest. Terrible attitude to have! Showed up nothing,didn’t work beyond any expectation. They lost,we move on.

It didn't work? What do you think the score would have been if England hadn't been thoroughly confused for 40 minutes?

Didn’t work,they lost. Not interested in any team that just turns up to keep the score down. Terrible way of approaching the game,England won comfortably ,we move on. Bored now tbh

[mol2]

Did the tactic work? No.

Was it worth trying? Probably - England, with a few new faces and missing a few players, might just have imploded under the pressure of chasing 5 tries and lots of points.

Ultimately this is a decent England side, second in the world cup but are capable of folding under pressure as they did in the final and indeed against France before the lockdown. Both games that on form true neutrals would have bet heavily on them.
Did Italy really expect it to work, probably not, but how else might they have played to give themselves a chance? I can't think of any better options given the players available. Certainly didn't make good viewing but it was about the result not the style.

[Scott1]

The result is they lost haha. If they really thought they were gonna win the match with tactics like that they need their heads looking at

[Old Hob]

[
I didn't launch the TV; I was shouting the obvious solution to the stunningly dim English players. It didn't need a rule change - just pick and go with nobody in front of you until they stop it. Which would be one phase.

I'm with you on this. I puzzled over this for a while; over-drilled? Creativity stifled? or just thick as mince and need to be told what to do?

Coaches have to be creative when given weak teams. The Japanese tactic of no skills training just fitness training until they could run for 80 minutes worked in the world cup.

[h's dad]

The result is they lost haha. If they really thought they were gonna win the match with tactics like that they need their heads looking at

I notice you won't answer the question. It is a near certainty that the tactic gave Italy a better result, ie a closer score, than they would have otherwise achieved. This is a justifiable reason to employ the tactic. I'm not sure why this is too complicated for you but you come across as a thoroughly unpleasant winner. And you weren't even on the pitch.