The rise and rise of Maro Itoje
The last time the British and Irish Lions headed into a third Test decider, Maro Itoje was just 18-years-old and yet to make his senior club rugby debut.
On Saturday, four years on in the lashing rain of Wellington, the 22-year-old Saracen was calling the lineouts as the Lions secured only their third victory on New Zealand soil. His status elevated to such an extent that his name was chanted around the Westpac Stadium.
Rarely has a player with so few international caps (12) been such a certainty to make a Lions tour. And now, having been left out of the starting XV for the first Test defeat, he will go into Saturday’s series decider with the world’s number one team as one, if not the key man for Warren Gatland.
From early on Itoje seemed destined for a career in professional sport, though it was not until he turned 16 that his focus turned to rugby.
The son of two Nigerian immigrants, Efe and Florence, Itoje was born in Camden, north London, the middle child of three between older brother Jeremy and younger sister Isabel.
When your pops is 100% more happy than you!! Thank you for the all the support. Onto next week!!! ?? pic.twitter.com/96agskaeEl
— Maro Itoje (@maroitoje) July 1, 2017
At school, he played several sports including basketball, football and athletics, representing England at U17 level in shot put.
As he admitted last week, Nigeria is anything but a rugby stronghold and one suspects at that point his dream may well have been the Olympic Games.
His power and physicality was duly noticed and recognised as near perfect for the oval ball though, and a £36,000-a-year bursary to attend Harrow was extended his way. It was here that his raw rugby talent was nurtured.
Itoje is somewhat different from the average rugby player, however. While forging a career at the highest level, he has studied a Politics degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies in Bloomsbury, London, admitting he missed his final exam to travel to New Zealand.
At Harrow, Itoje was a member of the choir with a fondness for classical singing and the opera. And in more recent times he has developed a fondness for writing poetry. Not something the vast majority of those he packs down with or against could claim to dabble in.
The 6’5″, 18st 5lb specimen we watch in front of us today also left school with a full house of A grades in A-level economics, statistics and politics.
Rugby wise, his emergence onto the scene has been less an explosion, and more a sporting cataclysm.
In less than eight months he went from missing out on Stuart Lancaster’s 2015 World Cup squad, to winning almost everything in the game: European Cup, Aviva Premiership, Six Nations, Triple Crown, Grand Slam. All by the age of 21.
And he didn’t just win them, he was one of the main contributors behind each triumph. An almost perfect cacophony of brute strength, pace and rugby intellect.
Like Gatland, England coach Eddie Jones was initially wary of throwing him straight into the mix, and it’s easy to forget that for the opening round of the 2016 Six Nations, Itoje was absent from England’s matchday 23.
Jones fielded George Kruis alongside Joe Launchbury for the trip to Murrayfield that day, with Courtney Lawes named among the replacements, as the quick-witted Australian memorably noted Itoje was “a Vauxhall Viva”, who had potential but “a lot of work to do”.
Three weeks later, Itoje started against Ireland at Twickenham and put in a composed display which belied his tender years and lack of Test match experience in a 21-10 victory.
A fortnight after that, he truly announced his name onto the highest stage with a monumental display against Wales at Twickenham.
Itoje did everything that day: lineout steals, viscous clean-outs, immense carries, gainline success, breakdown turnovers. He was the dominant force and made himself undroppable.
His transformation from “Vauxhall Viva to BMW” had happened far quicker than even Jones had envisioned.
A Grand Slam was achieved in Paris the week after, before he went on to secure the first of two European Cups with Saracens that May, as well as the English league title in the same month.
?"It was a nice moment to enjoy with the fans…."@alunwynjones reveals he wasn't the only one singing "Ohhh Maro Itoje" #AllForOne pic.twitter.com/QHlCrQ1xeR
— British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 6, 2017
His performances, in what was his breakout season, were such that by December 2016 former England international Austin Healy called for him to be named England captain.
On Sunday, former Lions and England coach Clive Woodward called him “invincible”, stating: “No wonder the Lions fans were chanting his name football-style afterwards. There were shades of Ronaldo and Messi in their worship of the man.”
While such utterances are, of course, way over the top and almost certainly said in the midst of hype-overload, the point remains that this is a special talent.
A propensity to give away cheap penalties and slip up to high tackles must be quelled, but Itoje looks set for a career at the very top for years to come.
The victory in Wellington on Saturday meant he has started seven games on New Zealand soil at Test, representative and age-grade level and picked up seven victories. Which is just extraordinary.
The only things missing from his rugby CV, at the age of 22, are a World Cup and Lions series. He’s got an 80 minute chance to achieve the latter this weekend, as the Lions face the pressure cooker of Eden Park.
Unbeaten there since 1994, the All Blacks are on a run of 37 straight wins in Auckland. It will be his biggest challenge to date, but Itoje hasn’t failed much in his whirlwind career so far.
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments