What Lions captain Maro Itoje said to his Saracens team after collapse

If anyone wants an insight into British and Irish Lions captain Maro Itoje’s leadership style, his changing-room address to his Saracens side after they blew a 24-7 second-half lead against Northampton Saints on Saturday is telling.

Itoje’s Saracens arrived at Franklin’s Gardens knowing a win would lift them into the top four of the Gallagher Premiership with only one more round to follow.

With a 19-7 lead at half-time, swiftly extended to 24-7 after the break, it looked as though the north London outfit would finish the weekend in the play-offs. So much so that it appeared even the Saints had accepted defeat. With the Investec Champions Cup final against Bordeaux-Begles to follow, they understandably started to switch their focus to next week by bringing off their star names.

A nightmarish 20 minutes ensued, as the Saints played with the verve that delivered them the title last season and landed them in European rugby’s showcase event to win 28-24 at the death. Having been comprehensively manhandled and bullied by Itoje and co up front, Northampton’s forward replacements took the fight to the three-time European champions. A rampaging maul, a dominant scrum and a ferocity at the ruck which had been lacking for 55 minutes laid the platform for a hotchpotch backline to run riot and leave Saracens’ play-off hopes in tatters.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Saracens

36 - 26

Full-time

Bath

All Stats and Data

Saracens now sit in sixth place with one round remaining. The positive for them is that they are only five points behind second-place Leicester Tigers. The negative is that the four teams above them are playing the four teams whose seasons are already over. Meanwhile, Sarries face runaway league leaders Bath at the StoneX.

Bath may well rest players with top spot already wrapped up, as they have done in recent weeks, boosting Saracens’ chances of victory. But even with a win, they would be relying on two of the four teams above them losing to a side with nothing to play for but pride. It may happen, but league positions suggest otherwise.

Itoje seemed acutely aware of that post-match as he addressed his team. The team could have been in for the proverbial ‘hairdryer treatment’ in the wake of such a catastrophic loss, but the skipper remained calm as he came to terms with a probable season-ending defeat.

“The fact of the matter is now our ambitions this year, this season, are out of our hands,” he said in a clip shared by Saracens online.

“All we can do is rip into Bath, that’s all we can do. That’s all we can focus on, last game of the season. All we can do is rip into Bath, get as many points as possible and just see what happens. Let’s control what we can control.

“There are some hard lessons that we have to learn from this game. We’ll have a look at that next training day, we won’t shy away from that, but let’s control the controllables.

“Every single person in this room is disappointed. Every single person in this room knows we could have done better. We could have handled the situation better in the second half. That’s a fact. All we can do now is look forward, alright?”

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