Itoje ready to fire toiling Sarries into knockouts

MARO ITOJE is fit and firing again as Saracens gear up for a seismic fortnight in their Champions Cup campaign, beginning tonight against Ospreys in Swansea. Mark McCall’s men must win at the Liberty Stadium, then beat Northampton at home next weekend in their last Pool 2 match if they are to have any chance of reaching the knockout stages. The Londoners looked more like themselves in last Sunday’s 38-15 demolition of Wasps, with Itoje (right) and Billy Vunipola returning to the starting line-up having recovered from jaw and knee injuries respectively. And now the England and Lions lock is ready to spearhead his side’s charge into the quarter-finals. ‘The next two weeks are big for the club,’ said Itoje. ‘It basically sets up our European destiny. We need a result this week. It’s massive. I was very eager to come back and play a part in helping the club hopefully get to where we want to be.’ Back-to-back defeats against Clermont in December, including a record 46-14 drubbing at their Allianz Park fortress, have put Saracens on the back foot. Those French setbacks were part of a seven-game losing streak for the European champions. ‘We had to take a hard look at ourselves and see what we wanted our club to be about,’ said Itoje. ‘It is about being consistent and about having each other’s backs. ‘We are a tight group here at Saracens. That has seen us through some big games over the last couple of years and it is important that we keep that. ‘With the players and coaches we have at our disposal, then in the long run we will be all right.’ Itoje, 23, fractured his jaw in two places in December but returned back to the fold just 35 days later. ‘The jaw was feeling good,’ he says. ‘So I thought there was no point waiting… let’s crack on.’