Italy plans unlikely to be a trend, says Pivac

SCARLETS head coach Wayne Pivac says he doesn’t expect to see Italy’s controversial ‘no-ruck’ Twickenham tactics become a trend in domestic rugby, writes Rob Lloyd

The Azzurri, masterminded by head coach Conor O’Shea, rattled England in their Six Nations encounter by refusing to enter ruck situations.

That took the offside line out of the game and allowed Italian players to seemingly stand in an offside position to disrupt home attacks.

The end result was that the match was far closer than many had anticipated, although Italy’s gameplan drew a scathing response from England head coach Eddie Jones, who insisted it “wasn’t rugby” and that paying supporters should ask for their ticket money back.

Italy aren’t the only side to have looked to use the tactics — the Chiefs Super Rugby outfit, Aussie flanker David Pollock and England No.8 Nathan Hughes, in Wasps colours against Toulouse this season, are among others.

It is understood that the game’s governing body World Rugby is considering whether to review the laws of the breakdown in light of the events at Twickenham.

As for Pivac, he doesn’t expect it to become a regular sight in the Guinness Pro12.

“I don’t think it will be a trend, I don’t think there are that many negative people around,” said the New Zealander. “It is not something we will be entertaining.

“I quite enjoyed it, purely because I saw a whole lot of highly-paid players struggle for a long period of time to know what to do and that amused me.

“Look, it is different, but it’s not something that will be encouraged in our side.

“It will be probably get looked at quite closely and I would imagine sides may not get away with it, depending on the referee in certain circumstances.

“If you want to play like that go and play sevens, that is my personal view. It is not something top sides do, do they?

“But having said that, coaches are innovative and when you are up against it, you have got to look at all ways of getting an advantage over your opponent and that is what they (Italy) have done.”