Martin Johnson blasts 'poster boy of penalties' Maro Itoje

"Maro's the poster boy of penalties,' said Johnson, who was speaking to the Mail Online.

"I was doing the England coaching job when he was coming through at Saracens. The guys there, like Paul Gustard, rated him very highly as a player and a leader."

Johnson continued: "He's a very good player and he can be very effective at turning balls over, charging balls down. He's just got to dial it back one degree and make sure he's squeaky clean. Unless it's 100 per cent on, he's just got to leave it. It's risk-reward.

"He's got to realise that referee is looking at him particularly hard and he's got to hold back a little bit.

"If you keep getting penalised, do refs look at you a little bit harder? Yeah, they probably do,' said Johnson, a Land Rover ambassador.

"England have been getting penalised consecutively at the start of games — and then the writing is on the wall. It's been refereed on the stricter side and referees are looking for things.

"You've just got to choose when to go in and compete. It's the hand in the cookie jar thing."

"He's been consistently excellent for England for a long time now, and I'm sure he will be up there in the thick of it."

“There are questions marks there (over his defence) but I think he’s in my definite category in that he’ll go on the tour and is favourite to wear the 15 shirt,” said

"He's got it all as a player. I could see from watching him at club level early in career that he was a fine athlete - at a level which we might not have seen in the second row before, but he's taken that on to the next level since."

"You are only looking at playing four or five games on the tour so if he's got the form, no, it's not an issue, and he's certainly got the experience. Willie John (McBride) was what - 33, 34 when he did it?."

"If you give him some space or a run to the line, he’ll pull it off. He played well, and at times against Ireland did some things that you wouldn’t associate him with doing, such as putting in some big hits.”