High-flying Scotland given a warning ahead of Twickenham trip

Sean O’Brien insists Ireland would have known exactly what to do if faced with Italy’s noruck tactics that bamboozled England on Sunday.

Italy’s refusal to ruck at Twickenham caught England cold, with the hosts forced to overturn a 10-5 half-time deficit for their eventual 36-15 victory.

England boss Eddie Jones slammed the approach, but the brainchild of defence coach Brendan Venter has received as much acclaim as critique.

Leinster flanker O’Brien praised Italy’s savvy ruse then admitted Ireland were aware that no ruck means no offside line – and would have known straight away how to combat it.

Asked if Ireland would have had an immediate answer to Italy’s ploy dubbed ‘The Fox’ by boss Conor O’Shea, O’Brien replied: “Yeah, absolutely, up the jumpers stuff!

“I certainly would have known the rules around it anyway. England dealt with it in the end but in fairness to the Italians they were very clever and smart in the way they went about their game plan.

“So you have to hand it to them too, but you have to adapt to those situations if they arise and it took England a little bit to do that. But they got the result they needed in the end.”

Ireland have previously refused to engage in lineout mauls to fine effect under Joe Schmidt, and O’Brien’s solution to England’s Italy conundrum would have been to produce a series of pick-and-go drives to clear the Azzurri’s blocking tactics.

“Once you’re prepared properly for situations like that then it can work in your favour too,” said O’Brien.

“They caught them on the hop, probably, and it’s one of those things.”