The former Harlequins director of rugby arrived back in south-west London last night with his Italy team talking of potential fulfilled but with no thoughts whatsoever of a first Azzurri victory over England.
After heavy home defeats by Wales – 33-7 – and Ireland – 63-10 – England away could be cover-your-eyes time for Italy. Not even the alterations in England’s backline change the prospect of a horrible drubbing.
“You have guys who are champing at the bit to make a real impact and they will play with complete and utter freedom. They won’t fear losing. Why would they? They are playing at Twickenham, they have won their last God knows how many games… I think most people will come along expecting 60 or 70 points,” said O’Shea.
“I’m expecting England to come out and try to run us off the park; we’ll see if we can stop that. Our job is to sow seeds of doubt within that and that’s what we will be trying to do right from the start.
“The two scores aren’t a reflection of where we are at but we won’t mope, we’ll get on with it and see what we can do against England. We want to earn a bit of respect this weekend.”
Leaving behind a comfortable life at Quins after six years for the basket case of Italy would seem to be the definition of madness from the results in his first Six Nations but there is a messianic side to O’Shea and he remains convinced he can turn water into wine with Italy eventually.
“We all know how hard a job this is. Everyone says it is impossible but nothing’s impossible and with good people around you like we have it makes it a lot more palatable,” he said.
“There’s loads to do but where there is a will there’s a way. There’s no doubt we have fallen behind others and if anyone thinks it is a one-day fix they are delusional. But we have to make sure, in the meantime, we are the best we can be on any given day.
“Were we against Ireland? No, and I blame myself. With a six-day turnaround did we prepare in the right way? There were certain things that weren’t quite there.”
Down on their luck, Italy appear a team in decline but O’Shea’s view is that the experience of losing on a weekly basis with Treviso and Zebre has hollowed out what in essence is a useful group of players.
“Sport is confidence. Teams that have that confidence feel invincible. They find ways of winning games they would ordinarily lose. Then you have the opposite of that where, when the hardships come, you begin to doubt yourselves.
“Both cycles – infallibility and fallibility – can be broken. We have to find a way out of our cycle,” he said.
“We have good players but they need confidence. As long as we look on each challenge as a new one and stop feeling sorry for ourselves we will get better. They will get better in the coming years unequivocably.
“Do we have the resources of England? No. They can’t spend all the money they make fast enough. But the talent in Italy is there.
“We have a very proud group of players and I’ve no doubt if they’d had the investment put into them that some of the England players have enjoyed it would be a completely different set-up.
“There is a huge amount that needs to change in terms of giving the players everything they require and deserve because they are an unbelievable group of people. We’re changing things but we’re changing them in the middle of the hardest competition there is.”
O’Shea is in this for the long haul – he has moved his family to Verona and learned Italian – but the here and now is Twickenham this weekend and a date with the white steamroller. You could forgive the bedraggled Azzurri from arriving with a feeling of dread in the pits of their stomachs.
“There are tougher things to do in life than represent your country in front of 80,000 people at Twickenham. It’s what you grow up dreaming of,” said O’Shea.
“It’s an unbelievable honour to play at Twickenham and an incredible exciting place to go. We’re not talking about winning or losing. All I want them to do is to go out there and perform to the best of their ability.”
