England lock Maro Itoje is delighted with his side’s successful start to the 2024 Six Nations, and expressed how England have their ‘eyes on the prize’, for the remainder of the tournament. Itoje has been impressed by the growth of his teammates, as England achieved a narrow 16-14 win over Wales last Saturday.
Speaking in the post-match media mix zone, Itoje admitted that the result could well have gone the other way just a few months prior. England are embracing this new era following a third placed finish at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with the Saracen impressed by how his side overcame the obstacles against Warren Gatland’s Wales.
“There have been some well-documented games when we didn’t start well and then continued to spiral. That is what we are trying to change.”
“It was a good win. First half obviously didn’t go as planned, but we found a way. That’s the growth of this team; we are finding a way to overcome challenges. Perhaps a couple of years ago, we would have spiralled, but we had an honest look at ourselves at half-time, Steve gave us clear messages and we managed to slowly but surely turn it around.”
“Perhaps in the past, when we’ve been down, we’ve tried to chase the game a bit too much. But what we are trying to do now is trust in our systems, trust in our players and trust in our plan. We believe that if we consistently do the right thing over a period of time then we will get where we need to be. That’s what we are trying to build.”
England are now two wins from two in the 2024 Six Nations, following their victories over Wales and Italy over the passed fortnight. The tournament now enters a break for the first of two fallow weeks, with Steve Borthwick’s side looking to recover, re-asses and ready themselves for the remaining three matches. Next up is Scotland, with England booked in to travel to Murrayfield on February 24th. Itoje is excited at the upcoming contest with Gregor Townsend’s side, as England build momentum towards a potential Six Nations title.
“I think every week is going to be a series of tight games, so that I think the level of the Six Nations has gone up. Scotland, again, we’re looking forward to the challenge. We’re looking forward to going up, and hopefully getting results. That’s the plan.
“We’ve got a little bit of momentum. I with think the two games, we’ve been figuring out problems, I guess the challenge for the forthcoming week against Scotland is to have a bit more consistent performance where it doesn’t take to halftime to, to fix this. We want to probably gain more control of the game earlier than what we have done in the past two weeks.
“It means we’re in the game. Yeah, it means where in the tournament, it means we’re putting ourselves in a positive position, which perhaps we may not have done in previous campaigns. Yeah, it means that we have our eyes on the prize. And as you know, life, not only rugby but outside of rugby, life is a lot better when you win. You go home, and smiles are on faces, you go home, your family look at you and smiles. That’s also a good things will have a positive mindset about the challenges ahead.
Three yellow cards were brandished throughout England’s win against Wales, with Borthwick’s side at one stage dropping down to just 13 men. Back-to-back yellow card offences saw Ethan Roots and Ollie Chessum sent to the sin bin for England, with Mason Grady given his marching orders for Wales, for the final 10 minutes.
The last time England played Wales at Twickenham before the past weekend, was in the 2023 Summer Nations Series ahead of the Rugby World Cup. That match saw the infamous introduction of the bunker system at Twickenham, with Owen Farrell, Henry Arundell, Freddie Steward and Ellis Genge all taking a trip to the side-lines. Farrell felt the wrath of the bunker the worst, as his shoulder-charge was elevated to a red card and he missed the opening pool stage matches of the Rugby World Cup.
Itoje was in charge of the penalty count in last weekend’s Six Nations battle, and the lock enforced a maximum of seven penalties be given away by England throughout the entire 80 minutes. Despite racking up six penalties in the first half, England were able to achieve the objective much to the delight of Itoje. The reporting journalists told Itoje of the news in the post match media scrum, to which the Saracen said;
“What did we get to? Oh we did it! Steve opened it up to the squad and said, ‘What should our target be this week?’. Typically, Wales have very low penalty-counts so we knew that we also had to have a low penalty-count to win the game.
“But he opened it up to the group and I put myself forward to say the number. Last week, eight was our target so I said, ‘Let’s try to be one better than last week, with seven’. Typically, the coach sets what he wants, the expectation, but he opened it up to the group and I felt compelled to say an answer!”
When England dropped to 13 men, there were some make-shift altercations made to the scrum. Sam Underhill moved in to partner Itoje at second row in Chessum’s absence, whilst wing Tommy Freeman covered Ethan Roots’ vacancy on the blinside flank. Itoje spoke about how impressed he was by the honorary lock and converted wing, yet admitted that the side had not often trained for such an unlikely scenario.
“Sam after the game was like, ‘this second row business is overrated. It is easy.’ He is the shortest second row partner I have ever had! But, to be fair to him, he did a pretty good job in his short studs. He did a good job. Him and Tommy Freeman helped set the platform that led to the eventual outcome.
“We train for back-rowers getting subbed in but we have never trained for two forwards being down. Fair play to Tommy, he’s a big strong winger and he brought into what we are trying to do. Sam again stepped up. Marler is a world-class prop and has been doing that for a while. That particular moment was a pivotal moment in the game.”
“We don’t want to go away. The best England teams of the past however many decades have always stayed in the fight. We want to position ourselves as one of those teams. That’s a non-negotiable for us, regardless of the scoreline, regardless of whether we are winning or losing, we want to stay in the fight. We want to be competitive.”
England have not won the Six Nations since 2020, or achieved the immortalised Grand Slam since 2016. Itoje was apart of both accomplishments, and is keeping a calm head despite the positive start to the tournament. Despite the England changing room not out-right banning any early talks of ‘titles’ or ‘Grand Slams’, Itoje is ensuring that his teammates keep calm heads, with the task at hand being to continuously build throughout the latter stages of the competition.
“If you look at our performances during the World Cup, we build throughout the tournament. I think we are going to do the same in the Six Nations. We want to build, we want to quietly go about our business, and hopefully each game will get better and better and better, and hopefully pick up pick up wins as we come. So far we are in a good position.”
“No, it’s not as if we are banning talk (of titles), but again, we don’t want to lose sight of what’s in front of us. We want to approach each game, as each game is important, and we want to put ourselves in positive positions to win each game. If we win each game, then you know, then we can talk about those things, but we want to build, we want to build throughout this tournament. And we want to get better and we’re very much looking forward to the challenge in Scotland.”
Itoje’s highlight of the win against Wales, was a 17th minute involvement that showcased the top side of his talents. ‘The Pearl’ of the England side chased down the scampering fly Ioan Llyod, tackled him to the deck before he could clear his lines, and turned the ball over at the following ruck to win England a penalty on the Welsh 5m line. England then opted for the scrum, and Ben Earl would go bundling over the line to score off the following phase of play. Speaking on this awesome contribution, Itoje said;
“Again, it links to what we just spoke about in terms of staying in the fight. We were 13-15 in terms of the body count so we were down, but we were in a good position on the field and we wanted to keep pressure on them. That led to a scrum that led to a try, which was incredibly important for us to be in the game. So I tried to do my part for the team.”
“In terms of our defence we have got a new defensive system and we want to put as much pressure on teams as possible. In that moment, I was trying to stay alive and contribute positively to the team.”