Australian-born, English national rugby union coach, Eddie Jones has labelled the Italian rugby union team the Trevor Chappells of world rugby after they exploited a bizarre loophole in the two teams' Six Nations clash."We have to come up with a new name for it, 'No Ruck Rugby.' I'm sure Trevor Chappell would have been proud today," Jones said after the game.In what can only be described as surreal, the Italians refused to contest the breakdown meaning no offside line could be established, allowing their players to chill in the English backline while defending.
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It is not the first instance of a team exploiting the loophole. Wallabies back-rower, David Pocock, used it on occasion during a test match against Ireland. Likewise, the Waikato Chiefs in Super Rugby. Anyone who played Jonah Lomu Rugby on Playstation One will have also used the tactic during the 'Classic Matches' competition."How can you have people standing in your attack line?" said Jones, "And even when there was rucks there were still people standing in your attack line. You're looking to pass the ball and there's a blue jumper there. You look in front and there's a blue jumper there! There's blue jumpers everywhere. I think at one stage they must have had 20 players on the field," he said.England still managed to win the match though Jones couldn't let it sit, drawing parallels with the infamous 1980s Australian One Day cricket player, Trevor Chappell, who famously bowled an underarm delivery to New Zealand batsmen Brian Mckenzie on the last ball of a match in 1981 to avoid him hitting a six to draw."Obviously we'll be watching Trevor Chappell," grinned Jones, adding: "Well done to Italy, very smart. We knew they'd come with something, we weren't sure (what). They took the game to the nth degree today and it wasn't rugby. So we haven't played a game of rugby yet."The slur presumably went straight over the heads of the Italians, however, who have little understanding of obscure cricket incidents between Australian and New Zealand from over 30 years ago. Jones' claim that it was not in the spirit of the game, meanwhile, might sound a little rich given one of England's key players was Ben Te'o, the former Queensland rugby league State of Origin star and premiership winning South Sydney Rabbitohs player, who was born in Auckland and grew up in Australia, before moving to England in 2014. Talk about loopholes.