Conor O'Shea: One day they'll turf me out for talking performance

Conor O’Shea wants to win tomorrow, but listening to the Italian head coach speak about his first visit ‘home’ with his new team, you can’t quite buy into it.

There’s no doubt he’d celebrate victory, but deep down there does not yet appear a serious belief that this squad has it in them.

“If Ireland play to their potential tomorrow and we play to ours, Ireland win, full stop,” he said, perhaps aware Joe Schmidt’s talent-packed side could dip below theirs and still cruise home against a team with 10 players who have made fewer than 10 appearances for Italy.

“If I was sitting here with the players in front of me, and I told them we’d charge over the barricades and win the match, they’d laugh at me.

“I want them to go out and play the best game they can, and what happens happens.

“We’ll play the game, we’ll give it everything we’ve got, then we’ll dust ourselves down, and keep on this journey we’re on. We want to do something special in the short term with this group over the next two years.”

This could be captain Sergio Parisse’s last visit to Dublin with Italy, and O’Shea told fans to embrace the most special of players.

But his hope is that many of the younger players in this squad, and even those not on display today, will be back in two years’ time to showcase a new-look Italy team.

Since taking the job less than two years ago, O’Shea has been light on landmark wins to illustrate the side’s progression, the November 2016 victory over South Africa an outlier.

Performances have improved, as has the depth of talent available to him, and an integrated strategy between the national team set-up and Zebre and Benetton, the country’s two PRO14 franchises, continue to raise standards.

But last year saw Italy end up without a single point in the Six Nations table, and just one win from their other six Tests.

📢 #Italrugby, per la seconda giornata del #6Nazioni tre cambi per Conor O'Shea#IREvITA pic.twitter.com/bhS7uGuEyx

— Italrugby (@Federugby) February 8, 2018

O’Shea insists he’s not losing energy, but knows that the day may come when fans and suits do.

“I said the whole time I want to win, I want to win this weekend, I want to win playing tiddlywinks, but I have to be realistic as to what we’re about,” he said.

“I’ll be judged on it. People will be sick of me talking ‘performances’ and they’ll turf me out. Fine. Not a problem.

"We have to do what’s right for Italian rugby, make the changes we think are right, hopefully people can see what we’re doing is right, and the wins will come if we keep on doing the right things.

“The players will see if I lose energy and I ain’t lost energy because I can see we’re improving. If at some stage, someone comes along and says ‘we can’t keep talking performance’, fine. That’s sport. That’s why I’ll never do any job in Ireland.”

Italy’s 15-46 loss to England last weekend looks harsh when judged on the bleak scoreline, given there was much to be impressed by from the home side.

But that comes after last year’s 10-63 defeat to Ireland in Rome — hardly a sign of significant evolution.

O’Shea says they’re slowly getting systems right, and the team is fitter than before, but things are not changing as quick as he’d like, and players have yet to learn how to perform — and win — at Test level.

They were successful with 93% of their tackles against England, “but when we miss, we miss big”, said O’Shea.

After November’s defeat to South Africa, in a game where they dominated possession and territory but were well beaten on the scoreboard, they took a new approach.

“Our foundations were a lot stronger than the November results might have suggested, and ahead of the Six Nations we decided to take some calculated risks,” he said.

“We’ll probably weaken ourselves in some areas but strengthen ourselves in other areas, because we want to score points.

“Every moment counts... as we learn that, as our team gets fitter — we have to get to another level of fitness, as we learn that mentality required, what the Irish players have learned.”

How O’Shea would love some of what Joe Schmidt has on offer tomorrow: Nine Lions in his starting XV, with more on the bench, as well as some fresh blood like Jordan Larmour — a full-back with whom O’Shea laughed off comparisons.

“I personally can’t wait to see him up close and personal,” he said. “I hope he doesn’t do too well.

“He is box office, isn’t he? He reminds me of a young Christian Cullen, I haven’t seen someone who can step off both feet like that. I used to just run straight.”

Schmidt also has options at out-half, with Joey Carbery understudy to Johnny Sexton, but O’Shea has his own former Leinster No10 in camp too.

Unfortunately for Ian McKinley, he won’t make a Six Nations debut on ‘home’ soil tomorrow, even if O’Shea would have liked to add to the player’s fairytale story.

“I’d love to have picked Ian, I wanted to pick him in so many ways but how could you say to the other players, ‘You’re not picked because I want to pick Ian on romance’?

“But Ian’s a rugby player, he’s not a romantic story. Ian wants to be picked because he is the number one rugby player and has the right to be in this team at the time, not because he’s a story.

“Sport is full of romance but the hard-nosed side of it is that, at the moment, Tommaso Allan had the jersey last week and was outstanding, and Carlo Canna is one of the top points scorers in PRO14 rugby and an exciting attacking talent who brings a different skillset.”

Listen to the PaperTalk podcast: Joe Schmidt's rookies, north London derby and the Kerry springers show

Subscribe to PaperTalk on iTunes and Soundcloud.