New captain was impressive but could not summon steeliness his team needed to close out a tight match
Maro Itoje was installed as England captain, primarily for two reasons. Firstly to give England a more abrasive, harder edge. Secondly, to help Steve Borthwick’s side close out matches, to steer them home in the second half, with the clock ticking down and the pressure turning up a few notches. On the evidence of his first game since being appointed, he is halfway there. Because Itoje was possessed for an hour, powerless for 20 minutes as England’s recurring problem reared its head once again, the drop-off cataclysmic. Welcome to the new England era, same as the old one.
As impressive as Itoje was in the first half, it is an irony lost on few that Borthwick explained his reasoning for making Itoje captain on the basis that he stays on the pitch for 80 minutes only for England to turn in their worst second-half performance in recent memory. It is not Itoje’s fault, he alone cannot hold back the tide, or as he is often fond of telling us, in victory or in defeat, “no man is an island”, but the most telling image of the final quarter was Itoje getting dumped on his backside by Jamison Gibson-Park.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/feb/01/maro-itoje-leads-from-the-front-but-cant-fix-englands-familiar-frailties
Author : Gerard Meagher at the Aviva Stadium
Publish date : 2025-02-01 20:30:20
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