Lawrence Dallaglio believes believes Maro Itoje or Jamie George would be better options instead of Saracens teammate Owen Farrell.
“I just don’t think the fly half is the best place to captain a rugby team,” revealed Dallaglio to The Telegraph.
“Any conversation you want to have with the guy in charge you have to take five steps forward to have that conversation and that’s quite an aggressive movement towards the referee and I don’t think the referees particularly enjoy that.
“If you look at the history of the game of rugby nearly every successful team has been captained by a forward.
“Most World Cups have been won by a team that has captained by a forward and I just think it is a much more comfortable conversation for both you and the referee if you are able to have a quiet what I call corridor conversations with the referee during a game, not the ones that are recorded and shown live on ITV to everyone.
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“That’s only my personal opinion and clearly not one that Eddie Jones shares because he’s insistent that Owen Farrell is the talisman. You can still be the talisman without being the captain.
“There’s plenty of leadership there in both Jamie George or Maro Itoje. It’s been proven before that sharing the leadership around the group will make England a better team in the long run.”
NIGEL OWENS RANKS THE THREE HARDEST ENGLISH PLAYERS TO REFEREE:
3. Maro Itoje
NIGEL OWENS SAID: “The second-row is someone who plays right on the edge. That is what makes him such a great player. He must be so difficult to play against but he’s also difficult to referee and I mean that with the utmost respect.”
” You don’t want him to change the way he plays but he needs to pick and choose when he gambles on the situation and when he doesn’t. And understand better those moments when you are under pressure and knowing when, if you take a risk and get it wrong, you will land your team in real trouble.