Wednesday 1 March 2017 15:36, UK
Martin Johnson says Italy's ruck tactics were "slightly desperate" but England were not quick enough to react to it.
The visitors refused to form rucks at Twickenham on Sunday, leading to chaos as Italy defenders positioned themselves beyond what would, in normal circumstances, have been the offside line.
The tactic limited scrum-half Danny Care's passing options, and had Eddie Jones' side on the back foot as they trailed 10-5 at half-time. However, England rallied to claim a 36-15 win and retain their hopes of a second consecutive Six Nations Grand Slam.
"It was interesting," said Johnson of the Italian ploy. "Would you say it was a slightly desperate move? Yeah, but the good thing for me: it made England think.
"I think England did adapt, they just weren't great at doing it because they hadn't done it before. If a team doesn't put pressure on the ball or the breakdown, just go straight through the middle of the thing.
"We actually had rucks at times - well it wasn't a ruck because there was no Italians there - we had three or four England players around the ball and it was still slow.
"Whatever teams do it closes something down but gives you an opportunity elsewhere, and you've got to work that out quickly. We got there, we just didn't execute it very well."
The 2003 World Cup winning captain says the sport has moved away from the days of forwards smashing through the point of contact.
"That game has gone away because of the pressure around the breakdown and the willingness to move it away from the breakdown. If that changes, you need to go back and attack the breakdown," Johnson said.
"Actually [England] started to do it, and there was times when we did that and a couple of little quick passes were got away and suddenly you're now going forward.
"When they did it dynamically, with pace, Italy couldn't do any of that because they're chasing you."
Johnson said it was a weekend in which several individuals played themselves into contention for the Lions tour in June, but said it was too early to write anyone off.
"I think every weekend there's guys who'll have good games and do good things and other guys won't. You've got to take it as a bigger picture," he added.
"Look at Rhys Webb, I thought he had some real spark. He knew Wales needed a spark, he created a try for them with that quick tap to get some tempo into the game at the right time. Danny Care did it, a quick tap and we scored.
"I thought Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton came back and played well.
"Some guys have a big back-catalogue, they've played for five or six years, they've been on Lions tours and you know they'll do the job.
"Other guys who are newer, you want to see a bit of consistency from them. You can't be up and down when you're on a Lions tour, you've got to be producing at a high level every time you're out on the field.
"I think the Scotland team all put their hands up - if you win games, you're putting your hands up."
Martin Johnson was speaking in his role as an ambassador for Standard Life Investments' principal partnership of the British & Irish Lions 2017
All 10 games of the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand will be shown live on Sky Sports, starting June 3 2017.
