'We're disconsolate, disillusioned, disappointed after a defeat... but don't do this job if it's not hurting'
Italy-Ireland games have a special place in the heart of Azzurri boss Conor O’Shea, the former Irish full-back. Take the giddiness he felt in the build-up to last year’s Six Nations encounter, the first time he was taking his team back to his homeland.
“It’s brilliant and I’m actually going to stay for a few days before Italy get together again because it’s my mother’s 80th around this time,” he told this writer 12 months ago about that impending visit to Dublin.
“I’ll stay around for a couple of days and I even said to Joe Schmidt at the Six Nations in London launch that hopefully we will meet up for a coffee in and around Terenure, see what weaknesses he pulls us apart on. I’m sure he will open up after the game, not before it.”
The pity about the incessant enthusiasm the former Premiership-winning Harlequins boss brings to his role is he didn’t take the reins a few years before he eventually agreed to do so in 2016. An earlier arrival might have helped to better treat the rot that has greatly stunted the development of Italian rugby.
Just six wins in 30 outings is sad proof of the daunting job of work O’Shea is handling, picking up the pieces after Italy dramatically fell off the face off the face of the earth when failing to build on their rich promise of 2013.
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The die was supposedly cast six years ago. That Italy, having beaten Ireland and France in the Six Nations in Rome, had finally arrived in the big time and were all set to motor on. They weren’t. Damagingly so.
Long-serving Edoardo Gori tackled this nuclear then-and-now landscape in the recent edition of the Rugby Journal magazine. “After 2013, the Italian momentum seemed to stop and the Irish built to become the best side in the world,” he shrugged.
“Six years ago we beat them and now they are on another planet. We have to understand how they did it. Rugby overall has changed a lot. The level of international rugby is a lot better. All the teams have got better, not just on matchday but the preparation, the processes, the post-match analysis.
“Without oxygen you can’t do anything, so we have to be fit. Then we work on mindset, preparation, how to deal with every moment and be competitive. Conor started to work on this from the start: our fitness, our belief, our passion,” said Gori, who at least had the silver lining that his injury in last year’s Dublin encounter coincided with him meeting his current girlfriend that day.
“Conor understood very well where we were and what we have to work on. It’s not easy, though. He’s not a wizard. He has had to do a plan for seven, eight, nine years because other team don’t wait for us as nobody stands still. He’s been working around Italy trying to help the coaches to be better. He’s doing a great job, but of course he needs a club team that is competitive if he wants to steal wins for Italy.”
Dean Budd, the second row who joined a hugely competitive Treviso in 2012 and then watched it disappear through the cracks, fully agreed. Recent improved Italian performances have coincided with a club scene revival where the now-called Benetton will finish this weekend’s PRO14 action occupying second spot in their seven-team conference. That’s no mean feat.
“The national team really flows on from the club success. In 2013, when Italy has that success, it was Benetton’s best year in their history and that was a massive flow on from a very successful club campaign,” Budd told RugbyPass this week during preparations for Sunday’s round three Stadio Olimpico encounter.
Dean Budd's emotional Six Nations tribute to his step-dad Pete 😢🇮🇹✈️🇳🇿 https://t.co/fuBDJalUtx
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 21, 2019
“Now at Benetton we’re starting to get things really good and Zebre, they are a little bit slower because they have a lot more to do, a lot more infrastructure to put in place. There is actually a process of building here now. It’s a slow one compared to Ireland, but Italy are looking to build things from the ground up which takes time. Fans obviously aren’t alway happy with the results, but that is not that way not works.
“Ireland invested into their rugby to be where they are now and it’s a very clear result there. They have invested money, effort, time and resources into getting the best people in the world involved and they have got the results from it.
“With Italy, there isn’t quite the depth of the system that Ireland have and behind the scenes they didn’t develop the academy. But just now, as a Benetton player, we’re starting to see signs that it’s beginning to come right.”
Will those signs be enough for O’Shea to remain at the Italian helm beyond the 2019 World Cup in Japan which is currently Schmidt’s planned sayonara as Ireland coach? One big win could change everything in the eyes of a federation that has been doing some backroom glad-handing, allegedly canvassing the interest of Racing duo Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers in taking up the position.
Impatience on the Italian federation’s part would be wrong given it was their own lack of investment and an ignorance of the bigger grassroots picture that were critical parts in why the rot commenced in the first place following 2013’s Six Nations high.
Unlike O’Shea, who was left unenviably picking up the pieces in 2016 of all that shredded promise, Schmidt’s Ireland fix was a far easier challenge. He’d been in the Leinster system, knew the lie of the land and instinctively set about turning potential into prizes to quickly move the national team on from the low ebb that was a fifth place Six Nations finish in Rome and a drop to a worst ever ninth position in the World Rugby rankings.
Schmidt’s hands have never been tied regarding resources. Every tiny detail is forensically analysed and provided for, everything right down to the provision of individualised mattresses to ensure better sleep (another batch were recently ordered).
It’s the type of financial muscle that is keeping Italy lagging behind their Six Nations rivals by a country mile and with that sort of mismatch, O’Shea’s enthusiasm should be treasured by his employer, not threatened.
“It’s a long, hard slog to change something that hasn’t been changed before,” admitted O’Shea who lives in Sirmione on the shores of Lake Garda, the picturesque town equidistant between Treviso and Zebre, the franchises who are improving under Kieran Crowley and Michael Bradley.
“They are a great people, they want it [success] and I’m not talking the players, I’m talking supporters, the Italian media. We are all really disconsolate, disillusioned, disappointed after a defeat. That is the nature of sport, but don’t do the job if it’s not hurting. It needs to mean something.
“We have the lowest budget in the Six Nations, so we have to be very systematic in how we go about these things. We have to be clever with our fitness. We cannot break the players, can’t just flog them and say ‘we have got 20 more where you have come from’. We have to just do it slowly.
“It’s a different culture and you can’t go against the culture, but we can learn from Italian life. I’m lucky to be Irish. Irish and Italian people have a lot in common in terms of family, food and drink in a good way, a good time in each other’s company.
“But trying to instigate change within that culture, there is a reticence, a slowness, to embrace change. ‘Why should we change? We have always done it like this.’ It’s about marrying all that up.
“I really believe what we are building now is something that over the next four to six years is going to be a team that is going to stay together and have a lot of ability within it. As we develop that depth I talk about, that competition will start spurring people on and we will be more competitive.
“I just want to look back and say I have done what I feel is my best and what is right for Italian rugby. If that means in four years’ time I’m watching someone else with this team getting great results, I don’t care. I just want to do what is right and hopefully we get that opportunity.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Ben Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
19 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
19 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
19 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
19 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
86 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
4 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
9 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
19 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to comments