Italy must not define O’Shea’s rugby career

Ernest Hemingway’s take on sports was pretty simplistic. And brutal.

“There are only three sports,” he is reputed to have said, “bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering. All the rest are merely games.”

Such anoutlook was perfectly in keeping with a man whose life was a necklace of one adventure after another.

It’s unlikely then he would have much truck with today’s sporting pastimes and their adherence to such crazy whimsies as health and safety but it was also Hemingway who apparently coined the phrase ‘grace under pressure’ in 1926 when asked to define ‘guts’ by Dorothy Parker in an interview for the New Yorker.

All of which brings us, in a roundabout sort, to Conor O’Shea.

Italian head coach since March of 2016, O’Shea is still waiting on a first Six Nations win after 10 attempts. Italy has won just six of the 28 games under his command and there is speculation the federation have sounded out the Racing coaching ticket of Laurent Travers and Laurent Labit.

And how does he deal with it? With grace. And modesty. By mentioning that he’s delighted with the input of Wayne Smith who he has persuaded to lend a hand. And by adding that the Kiwi’s breadth of knowledge has made him feel as though he himself knows nothing about rugby.

His demeanour and words at the tournament launch in London last week were impressive.

When asked about the doubts over his future, he pointed out that it would be negligent of his employers not to have a contingency plan in place. O’Shea popped up on The Rugby Pod last week as well and gave an in-depth interview devoid of bluster and deflection.

“I’m gonna say it, he’s a top man,” co-host Jim Hamilton offered afterwards.

Of all the lines O’Shea delivered over those few days, it was the one about sitting in the stands with Sergio Parisse and a beer in ten years’ time and reveling in the sight of an Italian side making waves on someone else’s watch. This is O’Shea to a tee. It really doesn’t seem to be about him.

Pause. Rewind. It’s October, 2001.

O’Shea is 31 and captain of London Irish. He’s made 127 appearances across seven years for the Exiles. It’s just two years since he was named Allied Dunbar Players’ Player of the Season. His Irish career has added up to 35 caps and two World Cup appearances but he has endured 11 months and three operations coming back from a dislocated ankle and broken leg.

All to no avail. A consultation with his surgeon has led him down a cul de sac towards retirement but there is no trace of self-pity as he shares all this with the BBC at the time.

He has already joined the management staff at Sunbury. Even at his lowest ebb, O’Shea’s focus is on the collective. And the next chapter.

“I want this team to be a real success and if I can help do that off the field I will,” he explained. “In three years’ time, if Ryan Strudwick, Declan Danaher or Kieron Dawson is lifting a trophy that will give me a great deal of satisfaction That is what we’re all working towards here.”

In the end, it took only seven months for Strudwick to lift the Powergen Cup at Twickenham.

O’Shea has qualifications in commerce, legal studies and sports management – the latter from the United States Sports Academy in Alabama – and he has worked for the RFU and the English Institute of Sport (EIS).

His achievement in transforming Harlequins from a club shamed by ‘Bloodgate’ to English champions inside three seasons was extraordinary.

A respected TV analyst amidst all this, he has stepped onto the guest speaker circuit too and struck a chord with many who may have little or no interest in his chosen sport.

“While the worlds of rugby and engineering may seem poles apart, when it comes to leading teams to exceptional performance they are almost identical,” said Colin Smith, of Rolls-Royce who availed of O’Shea’s through the Personally Speaking Bureau.

“(He) brought this out in a clear, informative and entertaining way and provided a high note on which to finish our conference.”

If there is one notable gap in the man’s resume then it is the absence of any full-time role here in Ireland.

O’Shea has ruled out the prospect of becoming Ireland head coach on the basis that most such posts end in failure and he doesn’t want to taint his connection with the country at large.

But this is someone who, aside from all his achievements in rugby, was the man in charge of the RFU’s regional academy system, someone who spent close to two years on the Olympic beat with the EIS.

Results on the pitch may be stubbornly negative but his wider remit, transforming Italian rugby from top to toe, shows undoubted signs of progress.

That too will be someone’s else brief one day. Still only 48, there is ample time for his many talents to be utilized on these shores.

It would be a plague on everyone’s houses here if heaven and earth was not moved to make that happen.