Saracens captaincy can elevate Itoje – and set him on path to lead Lions

At last. Ten years after captaining England Under-20 to the World Junior Championship title with a victory against a young South Africa side that was colossal in terms of size and talent, Maro Itoje grasps the mantle of captaincy again. There has been the odd game when he has led his club, but now he is given the opportunity to reveal and revel in his leadership qualities as Saracens’ permanent captain.
Watching him inspire his England team-mates all those years ago from the grandstand of Eden Park (his club colleague Nick Tompkins later shifted allegiance to Wales), it was impossible to believe he would not have been handed the captain’s armband until he reached the age of 29.
But here we are, perhaps at the beginning of the lock’s second phase as a professional rugby player. With five Premiership titles, three Champions Cups and a nomination for world player of the year to go with his 84 England caps and six Test matches for the British & Irish Lions, it is easy to think the glory days are behind him. But the appointment opens the door to an improved Itoje. A successful stint as Saracens skipper could potentially lead to him following in the footsteps of Owen Farrell and Jamie George as England’s leader.
George is 33. If he can sustain his best form, he has a chance of making the Lions’ tour to Australia in 2025. However, in his Saracens team-mate Theo Dan and Northampton’s Curtis Langdon, there are young and likely rivals as starter. The present captain could find himself hanging on to the hooker’s No2 shirt in 2025, only to lose it to a rival who will become an integral ingredient in the World Cup plan, but with a season or so of lost Test-match experience.
Agustín Creevy, the Argentina hooker, retires from the international arena at the ripe old age of 39 this weekend. Only recently, he emerged from the bench to play an unforgettable cameo in his side’s victory against the All Blacks. Age is not the enemy it was a decade ago, but is it wise to bank on the lessons from exceptions such as Creevy and Johnny Sexton in their late thirties?
Indeed, epicentre of Ireland that Sexton was, should Andy Farrell have given more game time to Jack Crowley before his side’s defeat by New Zealand in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, when the great fly half appeared to finally wilt in the dying minutes of that epic? There is always a danger that the flipside to comforting experience for a coach is untrusted inexperience.
For all the unquestionable quality of George off the field, there remain questions regarding form and longevity. Itoje, who takes over from the former England skipper Owen Farrell at Saracens, becomes one of the potential alternatives for country. The second-row may have said: “I won’t be doing it [the captaincy] alone — we have lots of leaders in this group,” but there are differences between being the skipper and one of the leaders.
If Itoje has one flaw to his game, it is an excessive overabundance of that Saracens will to win. In Farrell, it found an out with aggressive tackles and a simmering loss of control at crucial junctures. Itoje’s weakness is one of discipline. He just can’t keep himself on his feet and onside. He’s not really that bad, but that is sometimes how it seems.
Maybe captaincy will cool his onfield ardour. He is highly intelligent, and the subtle change in his relationship with referees could keep him on his feet and onside. Farrell excelled as a follow-me leader but lacked the cool head of the tactician. Itoje can offer something a little more cerebral.
It’s not as if he has always leaked penalties. In his early international days he was extremely well disciplined. It was somewhere during Saracens’ magical surge that he picked up a bad habit that has not proved easy to shrug off.
Itoje is the finest English second-row since Martin Johnson — a different style but equally effective. The younger Johnson had a few overly aggressive traits that didn’t benefit his game. When Sir Ian McGeechan made him Lions captain for the 1997 tour to South Africa, Johnson was transmogrified as a player. Who knows, the new Saracens skipper could possibly be set to follow in Johnson’s giant shoes. Were he to be appointed Lions captain, it would be no more a shock than when the Leicester Tigers great was selected for the role.
Like Johnson, Itoje has it in him to make staggering improvements to his game. Captaincy can inspire, not burden. It is true that his form wavered in the build-up to the 2023 World Cup, but he was superb in France and nothing less than colossal against South Africa in the semi-final, when he got the better of the immense Eben Etzebeth. When England most needed the old Maro, he delivered. His Six Nations performances this year were good and he was eye-catching against New Zealand in the first Test of the recent series. He has a habit of bringing his best game to the park against the All Blacks and the Springboks. That tells us all we need to know about the man.
Even though Saracens have produced the two most recent captains of England, probably the club’s best skipper was Brad Barritt. Hard as nails but utterly phlegmatic, the centre was unwavering in his calm; polite and composed with the referee and beloved of his team-mates. There’s a lot of love at Saracens — “I love this club,” Itoje said on the day he was unveiled as captain. Farrell was revered and George is enormously popular as England’s front man.
“Humbled and honoured” with the announcement, Itoje has been given the opportunity to elevate his game and reach the greatness he has soared towards so often in the past decade.