Tuesday 28 February 2017 12:09, UK
Italy's "fascinating" tactics at Twickenham on Sunday do not entirely explain England's poor performance, according to Will Greenwood.
The visitors' refusal to form rucks led to a chaotic pattern as Italy players positioned themselves beyond what would, in normal circumstances, have been the offside line.
The tactic limited scrum-half Danny Care's passing options and contributed to a 10-5 half-time deficit before England got it together to claim a bonus-point 36-15 win and retain their hopes of a second straight Six Nations Grand Slam.
Eddie Jones afterwards encouraged supporters to ask for their money back as he blasted Italy's approach, while opposite number Conor O'Shea gave an impassioned defence of his gameplan.
Greenwood, attempting to make sense of the mayhem on Sky Sports News HQ on Monday, said: "It was fascinating.
"If you like problem-solving and things that are a little different, you loved it. If you like what you're expecting to see and if you're like Geoff Boycott - 'I know what I like and like what I know' - then it was a little off-putting.
"The definition of madness is to keep doing the same things and expect a different result. Guess what? Italy have kept doing the same things for 16 consecutive years and have never beaten England.
"Conor O'Shea and [assistant] Brendan Venter came up with a plan, he rolled the dice with it. It's not to everyone's liking, but he used the laws of the game to create chaos and pandemonium in the English attacking system which meant the chariot couldn't rack up 50, 60, 70 points as people expected."
The opposition's unorthodoxy does not spare England criticism over the sloppier parts of their game, according to Greenwood, who said: "England cannot blame 'ruckgate' for their first-half performance.
"England caused a mighty amount of problems themselves. They kicked really poorly, their handling was poor and they lost discipline. They gave away more penalties in the first half than they have in umpteen years."
By the time Scotland come to Twickenham on March 11 the world's elite referees will have convened, and Greenwood expects some sort of clampdown on a tactic which has been used sporadically at elite level in the past - but never so consistently over the entire 80 minutes.
"The referees are on it," he said. "They trialled a system in New Zealand to try and prevent it - once a tackle was made there was an immediate offside line. That was even more chaotic.
"The referees will meet next Thursday and, as Eddie Jones said, the danger is it creates this sort of impasse. England didn't know where to pass, but Italy couldn't go and win the ball because there's a one-metre exclusion zone around the scrum-half."
The official on duty at the weekend, Romain Poite, could be heard telling James Haskell "I'm a referee, not a coach" when asked for clarification on how England might legitimately respond to Italy's ruse.
Jones afterwards said Poite "had a terrible game" but a spokesman for World Rugby told SSNHQ the Frenchman "handled the game well".
