Maro Itoje tempers expectations over England while issuing warning

England captain Maro Itoje has said that he is as excited now as he has ever been about the national team, but said that “there is a long way to go to become the team that we want to be.”

A gritty 27-23 victory over Argentina, where England were one successful Pumas maul away from losing at the death on Sunday, completed an unbeaten Quilter Nations Series for Steve Borthwick’s side and an 11th win in a row.

After victories against Australia, Fiji and the All Blacks, England raced to a 17-3 lead over Felipe Contepomi’s side at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, only to falter in the second half and let the visitors back into the game.

The second half showing perhaps highlighted some of England’s current shortcomings and was a reminder that they are still trailing the current world number ones South Africa, something that Itoje was quick to mention after the match.

Itoje stressed after the narrow victory that “there’s still so much work for us to do”, but added that “that’s the exciting part”.

“I think we made some progress,” Itoje said when assessing his side’s overall performance throughout November.

“It’s really exciting, the future. The team has a long way to go to become the team that we want to be. That’s the exciting part.

“It’s now on us as players to make sure we come into the Six Nations camp in as good a condition as we can.

“It’s just exciting. I’ve been a part of the England team for a number of years now and I’m as excited now as I’ve ever been.

“If you look at the quality of depth, the quality of play, I think players are getting on board with how we want to play. So we just need to keep building.

“There’s still so much work for us to do. You only need to look at this game to see there’s so much work that we need to do. But I think there’s a real appetite amongst the playing group to do that.”