Eddie is spot on ...Itoje’s NOT an England captain
EddIe JoneS has revealed he does not see Maro Itoje as a future england captain — but in his latest book, he also admits that owen Farrell is still a work in progress as a leader.
Halfway between World Cups, Jones has offered remarkably candid views about some of his players, in Leadership: Lessons from my Rugby Life.
When Itoje first emerged as a supreme rookie, he was soon identified as a Test skipper-inwaiting, but that impression is not shared by the man in charge of england, it appears.
In an illuminating passage of his book, Jones suggests that Warren Gatland was right to give the lions captaincy to Alun Wyn Jones rather than Itoje.
He writes: ‘That seemed sensible to me. I might be wrong, but I am not sure Maro is a future england captain. He is going to be one of the great players, but Maro is very inward-looking.’
This point appears valid. Itoje is a phenomenal player — a consistent, world-class asset for club and country and a world xV player almost every time he plays. But that doesn’t make him a natural captain. He is a supreme individual and should be left to concentrate on that focused personal work.
Jones’s observations about Itoje fly in the face of the assertion that captains merely have to lead by example. If that was the case, Itoje would be a perfect choice. But leadership is about so much more than that. It is about having empathy, being a people person and an astute man-manager; someone who knows when to speak and when to step back, when to comfort, when to cajole, when to let rip.
Many of the best captains are respected characters who those around them can relate to and rally around.
It doesn’t hurt if they are popular, which is why ellis Genge has made such an impact at leicester and why Courtney lawes proved such an effective understudy for Farrell during england’s autumn campaign.
lawes is a calm figure who knows when to flick the intensity switch. The word is that it was a happy camp under his command. At 32, the northampton forward is in the form of his life and, while he did not covet the england captaincy, he has inadvertently turned himself into a prime candidate to fill the role until the next World Cup. He is respected, liked and experienced.
Farrell may not be fit for the start of the Six nations and his england place is up for debate, as Marcus Smith and Henry Slade dovetailed so well against South Africa. The Saracens playmaker has been leading the national team for three-and-ahalf years, but Jones explains in his book how some rough edges are still being smoothed.
‘owen Farrell is developing well as a leader,’ he writes. ‘He just needs to practise being a leader as much as he can. He’s quite an aggressive leader, and captains of this type can find it difficult to adjust to the nuances of the role. They have to develop their softer skills — to empathise with their team-mates and bring them together into a cohesive unit and, also, to manage the referee.’
england have tailored training sessions to help Farrell develop his captaincy repertoire and arranged for him to be mentored by the likes of Will Carling and former Australia rugby league captain Cameron Smith.
Yet lawes has shown he already possesses the ‘softer skills’: empathy and an ability to connect and communicate with team-mates and officials.
For the near future at least, lawes — quite suddenly and unexpectedly — has emerged as the right man to lead england, rather than ‘inward’ Itoje or the ever-aggressive Farrell.