JAWESOME ITOJE’S PLAYING FOR HIGH STEAKS
Maro must sink his teeth into Ospreys to keep Sarries alive
MARO ITOJE will admit to only one lost cause – and it’s not Saracens’ Champions Cup campaign.
“Trying to eat steak two weeks after breaking my jaw,” said the England and Lions star, grimacing at the memory.
“It was like chewing a mixture of toffee and chewing gum. It just wouldn’t go.”
Itoje, 23, is back playing after the “most excruciating pain” he has known.
The two metal plates in his chin and two more pinned to the left side of his jawbone have settled down and his comeback against Wasps six days ago suggests normal service is resumed.
Saracens will depend on it in Swansea tonight where they take on Ospreys in the penultimate round of pool games with no room for error. European champions for the past two seasons, the Londoners went a tournament record 20 games without defeat before Clermont hammered them in December. Clermont beat them again in France a week later as Sarries lost a seventh successive game for the first time in a generation.
Cue a series of “difficult conversations” inside the club, boss Mark McCall knowing there was no time to waste if they were to save their European season.
“We had to take a hard look at ourselves,” said Itoje. “See what we wanted our club to be about and whether we were sticking to what we were saying we were about.
“We probably weren’t all the time. We are a tight group and that’s what has seen us through some big games over the last couple of years. It is about being consistent.”
The following week Saracens won at Leicester. Then they beat Worcester. Then Wasps. The confidence has returned, so too injured stars Billy Vunipola (above, left), Brad Barritt (above, middle), Michael Rhodes, Itoje and, tonight, Liam Williams (above, right).
What hasn’t changed is the Pool 2 table. Clermont still lead by five points from Ospreys and seven from Saracens. Another loss and the champs are out.
Form favours Sarries but with no wriggle room Itoje insists they are approaching it as a cup final.
“We have worked pretty hard over the last few years to get to where we are and it is not something we want to give up easily,” he said.
“But if we perform like we know we can, we will be OK.”