22 CONOR O’SHEA
ITALY COACH NICK EVANS
NEW ENTRY
Conor evolved our club. When he arrived at Harlequins in 2010, the club had just gone through its darkest time. Off the back of ‘Bloodgate’ and the ensuing carnage that came with it, we were a club in freefall. Now, Italy are not in freefall but they aren’t in the greatest of positions either. At the bottom of the Six Nations consistently, one win is cause for celebration for them.
The first thing Conor did at Quins was to pinpoint and reaffirm our identity as a club, what we stood for both on and off the field. Structures were put in that we lived by day to day.
That’s the easy part. The hardest part is to get 40-50 players, plus staff, to believe in the structures and act on them. Words, beliefs and structures are nothing unless acted on.
People now identify a Quins style, a Quins way. And as Conor would always stress: “It may not be the right way but it’s our way.” And it worked. We got the club’s first Premiership title in 2012.
Conor doesn’t do much, if any, on-field coaching but he was always a presence, a voice. Leadership was entrusted onto the players; we were the ones out there, we were the ones to steer the ship through the calm and the storms. To have that backing but with the pressure of results put on him, it meant our shackles could be lifted.
We were there to implement Quins’ style; he was there to give us the tools and to make sure we lived up to all that we could be.
Italy have got a phenomenal individual whose passion for the game is so contagious. We will see a better Italy and therefore a better Six Nations.
“ITALY HAVE A MAN WHOSE PASSION IS SO CONTAGIOUS”