England scrum half Danny Care has suggested that Italy head coach Conor O'Shea went from being the most attacking man in rugby to the most "negative" with the tactics he employed in Saturday's Six Nations match.
England struggled as Italy's Irish head coach set up his team to avoid rucks and it took a second half turnaround for the reigning Six Nations champions to secure victory.
Italy's tactics angered England head coach Eddie Jones, who branded them "not rugby" and criticised the referee for having what he saw as a "terrible day".
For his part, O'Shea stood firm against the criticism, emphasising that the tactics employed by Italy did not stray outside the laws of the game.
Care has played for London based English Premiership club Harlequins since 2006 and O'Shea previously worked with him there during his time as director of rugby.
"I'm going to pick Conor's brains over a beer. He has gone from being the most attacking man in rugby to the most negative in one game. They felt they had to do it to try to get a result but they didn't," the 30 year old player said of Italy's tactics in according to The Express newspaper.
The player unsurprisingly backed his own head coach's remarks.
"I think Eddie has said everything that needs to be said about it. We all echo his thoughts. It's a pretty ridiculous rule. If teams feel they need to do that to make it a level playing field it's very negative," he said.
"I was with Ugo Monye having a haircut on Friday and I didn't realise he was on the phone to Conor [O'Shea]. I think Ugo wanted some help with his commentary, on the sort of things they were trying to do.
"Ugo asked him if he had anything up his sleeve and Conor obviously said, 'no'. I said to him he was a liar but a good liar. Ever the politician Conor."
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