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5 hours ago
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Maro Itoje has called on his England side to show their character as they seek to salvage some pride from a dismal Six Nations campaign against title-chasing France in Paris on Saturday.
Itoje’s rallying cry comes with England staring down the barrel of what would be their worst Six Nations if they fail to win away to France for the first time since 2016. Les Bleus will almost certainly successfully defend their title with a bonus-point victory but will know exactly what they have to do by the time kick-off arrives.
The head coach Steve Borthwick is under immense pressure after last weekend’s defeat by Italy came on the back of losses to Scotland and Ireland and his restrictive, kick-heavy gameplan has come under huge scrutiny as a result. Itoje, however, believes the gameplan takes a back seat at Stade de France with the captain urging England to show their mettle.
“It’s not about, oh, we want to kick here, we want to run here, we want to do this lineout move,” said Itoje. “This game is not about that. This game is about showing each other and showing our fans what we are really about, what we are truly about. This game is an opportunity for us to show the character of this team. And I genuinely believe this team is going somewhere. Unfortunately, as of late we haven’t been able to put that consistently on the park.
“But this is a brilliant opportunity and perhaps this opportunity is necessary for us to be the team we need to be, against a good quality French side, in their own back yard. We have the opportunity to go out there and give the very best of ourselves.”
When naming his starting XV that features just one change in personnel with Ollie Chessum returning at blindside flanker, Borthwick challenged his senior leaders – Itoje, Jamie George and Ellis Genge – to “step up” against France. Itoje agreed with his head coach but sought to strike an optimistic tone, insisting England will benefit from this disappointing campaign in the long run.
Itoje added: “In any organisation, it’s about the senior players or the senior leadership or the senior management. In any organisation, they play a crucial role, especially when things haven’t gone our way as of late, you look to the senior guys – we must step up. We must make sure that our own game is in order.
“I truly believe this team has a high ceiling. Yes, just because we haven’t won the last game or the last couple of games, doesn’t mean we can’t win the next one. There are lessons to be learnt from the games and perhaps it was necessary for us to go through this to be the team we want to be in due course. I would rather not have experienced what we have experienced over the last three games but I think when it is all said and done in a couple of years we might look back and say ‘this is what that team needed to go on to achieve what they went on to achieve.”
The England assistant coach, Joe El-Abd, meanwhile, is wary of the “wounded beast” that his side will face in France, who suffered a stinging 50-40 defeat by Scotland last week to end hopes of a grand slam. El-Abd, who finished his playing career in France before coaching at Oyonnax and Castres for 10 years prior to joining the England set-up, said: “They will be injured, they call themselves un bête blessée so an injured beast and that can be dangerous. They will want to put that right and I expect the best of France this weekend.
“[But] there are two teams that want to put in a great performance this weekend. We know how hard it is when you lose in an England shirt as a coach or a player, no one is hurting more than us so we expect that from France but we also expect from us, an attitude to play the England way and go out there and show what we can do.”
