Maro Itoje Leads England’s Redemption Mission Against Australia at Allianz Stadium

A year on, England’s players, many of whom were part of the successful British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in the summer, know exactly how dangerous their opponents can be.

For Lions and England captain Maro Itoje, tomorrow’s Quilter Nations Series clash is not just another fixture. It’s an opportunity to put into practice everything England have learned — about themselves and their opponents.

“Well, you learn a few things,” he says of facing Australia repeatedly on tour. “When you play three games against someone back-to-back you tend to pick up trends and what they're about. To be honest, most of the things I've learned about them have been really positive. I think they're a tough team. I think they're a physical team.

"I think their physicality, when you watch it you don't notice it but their players really do look to lay down a marker physically and I think they're a well-coached and well-drilled team. It seems like they have a real clear identity and a vision of how they want to play.”

That physicality, Itoje says, is something England will have to match. “It’s huge. Rugby is a game of aggression really. Generally speaking, the most physical team tends to win. I already alluded to my belief Australia are a physical team.

"The onus is on us to really show what we’re about and the type of team we want to be. I believe at our best we’re an incredibly physical team. We need to put that on the table.”

England’s year has been a story of growth rather than perfection. The summer Lions tour and Argentina Tests were a highlight for many of the players — a 2-1 Lions series win under Itoje’s captaincy — but the Six Nations and club seasons brought mixed emotions. “The experiences you have in life, and this is when it's positive and negative, but the experiences you have, they shape you,” Itoje reflects.

“Off the back of the tour, the Six Nations, the club season that we had, there's all been varying degrees of success. Some have gone exactly how I wanted it to go, some have been less so. I think all of those experiences help shape the person that I am.”

That sense of learning and adjusting is at the heart of how Itoje leads. Having captained Saracens, England, and now the Lions, he’s learned that leadership starts with connection. “From my point of view going into the summer, one of the most important things that I had to do was relationship build between myself and the teammates on the tour,” he says.

“Everyone knows everyone, but you don't really know them. It’s about relationship building and once you get to that stage then it's easier to take actions and direct things on the field.”

That emphasis on relationships extends into England’s current squad. Itoje has been quick to praise players like Guy Pepper, who will make his Twickenham Test debut tomorrow. “I’ve been really impressed by him,” he says. “Watching him play in Argentina, I think he was one of the standout performers full stop across both sides.

"Not only is he a very good player, but his mentality in and around training, his mentality to want to get better, want to learn and get across his detail. That will put him in good stead for years to come.”

“It’s almost the seriousness of it,” he adds. “You can tell when someone is really giving their all or really diligent about their preparation and wanting to get better. It’s through how accurate they are with their training as opposed to senior guys having to tell them how to do it.”

For Itoje, the future is about building consistency — what he calls England’s “body of work” — ahead of the 2027 World Cup. “You don’t just rock up to a World Cup and win,” he says. “Often, a World Cup is a reflection of your body of work. Now we are trying to put together our body of work for that.”

That starts with the present. “I think we can win,” he says of the autumn. “There’s not a team we’re playing who I don’t think we can beat. We want to go and win all our games. Every player should definitely aspire to that. Our fans should expect us to have the same mindset.”

Last year’s late collapse against Australia still lingers — a game Itoje describes as “disjointed” from England’s point of view. “We weren’t good enough. We weren’t accurate enough with our execution and we probably didn’t play the game smart enough,” he admits. “We managed to wrestle back control at the end.

"But we just weren’t sharp enough with our defence in the final few minutes. Sometimes you have to learn from your mistakes and hopefully we’ll do that this time round.”

There’s also a sense of excitement about what’s coming next. “The direction of travel is incredibly exciting,” Itoje says. “For someone like me, at my stage of my career, it gives me so much motivation to keep going but it also gives me belief that this team is moving in the right direction.

"We need to be consistent, and we need to continue to build over time, but I think there's no mountain we can't climb.”