My Azzurri Still Have A Few Tricks Warns Mac

LUKE McLEAN looks back at the way Italy bamboozled England last season with a wry smile.

- Jon Newcombe

The Azzurri’s no-ruck approach won them very few friends at Twickenham but, for 68 minutes, it looked like the tactic, now outlawed by World Rugby, could possibly win them the game and pull off the biggest shock in the Six Nations history.

“I was convinced that they’d figure it out a lot earlier than they did,” said inside centre McLean, a mainstay of the Italian team for the best part of a decade.

“We put so much work into making that work on the day. It was quite difficult to do. We all had to be on exactly the same page because, if one person made a mistake and stayed in and turned it into a ruck, we’d get penalised and be 40-50 metres back.

“We were only a few points behind well into the final quarter and then ran out of steam.”

Mclean, who is now with London Irish, believes the Azzurri may have fresh tricks up their sleeve for this year’s Six Nations, starting against England in Rome today.