England captain Dylan Hartley: This is what we thought of Italy's Six Nations tactics
DYLAN HARTLEY has admitted that he could not tell his England players how to deal with Italy's tactics in their Six Nations clash - because he himself didn't fully understand what was happening.
England captain Dylan Hartley struggled to understand Italy's defensive tactics in the first half
Italy bamboozled England with their defensive plan, which involved refusing to create rucks allowing the Italians to roam "offside" into passing lanes.
And Hartley revealed that the reigning Six Nations champions were unable to construct a counter-strategy in the first half.
"We found something out there that we'd never really seen before and it took us a good half to adapt to those rules and how it was being refereed," Hartley said.
"That's what we did today and scored some good tries.
"We conceded far too many penalties and there's plenty to work on."