Itoje calls for a full 80-minute display from England

MARO Itoje insists the climax to the autumn against South Africa can not come soon enough as England react to their dramatic draw with New Zealand by targeting the complete performance.

Eddie Jones’ team fought back from a 19-point deficit to draw 25-25 with the All Blacks at Twickenham on Saturday, a stunning late salvo of tries making up for a passive first half.

Frustrated that England only clicked once the All Blacks had built a near-assailable lead, Itoje is demanding that they are relentless in their pursuit of the world champion Springboks.

“Playing South Africa at Twickenham - I’m really looking forward to it. I only wish the game is a little bit sooner because we left a lot out there against New Zealand,” said the Saracens second row.

“While the second half was a bit more how we want to play, next week is an opportunity to hopefully play how we want to play for the full 80 minutes. We have an incredible amount of potential in this team, we just need to unlock it. We are spending more and more time together and are becoming more cohesive, so hopefully it will come.

“I’m proud we stuck at it and we didn’t go away and proud we played some great rugby towards the end of that game, but we need to play like that for the whole game.

“You never want to be too happy with a draw, but it’s better than losing. Hopefully it will put us in better stead for South Africa, who will be a great challenge.

“South Africa haven’t changed the way they play since their first game in international rugby! Strong set-piece, strong kicking game, strong defence.”

Jones is set to shelve the experiment of playing specialist No 8s Sam Simmonds and Billy Vunipola together in the back row in order to strengthen their line-out against South Africa. England’s head coach has highlighted the importance of having options in the set-piece in anticipation of the Springboks’ aerial assault, pointing to Itoje replacing Simmonds at blindside flanker and Dave Ribbans starting at lock.

“We probably need three jumpers against South Africa. It’s going to be a higher kicking game so we’ll have a look at that,” Jones said.

“We were a bit disappointed early on against New Zealand about the effectiveness of our ruck defence. Ardie Savea we handled pretty well.

“Tom Curry and Sam Simmonds defensively were good and that’s the best Test match I’ve seen Billy Vunipola play since 2019.”