Itoje’s unstoppable rise faces its toughest test

Daniel Schofield charts lock’s march to the top as he prepares to start against the All Blacks

There is a common theme in Maro Itoje’s fledgling career, where various coaches have attempted to hold him back. The parallel pattern is how quickly these efforts have come unstuck.

Stuart Lancaster, the then England head coach, cut Itoje from the training squad for the 2015 World Cup; Eddie Jones, Lancaster’s successor, memorably described him as “a Vauxhall Viva” having not selected him for his first match in charge; and Lions head coach Warren Gatland chose to keep him in reserve against New Zealand last Saturday. That last mistake has duly been rectified by Gatland promoting the 22-year-old second row to the starting XV for the second Test in Wellington on Saturday.

Even at Saracens, there was a concerted attempt not to rush him into the first team. After all, English rugby is littered with examples of youngsters who were thrown in at the deep end and left to sink. Itoje made his club debut at blindside in the LV Cup against Cardiff Blues on Jan 25, 2013.

Starting in the second row that day was Mouritz Botha, who was struck by his relaxed demeanour.

“Any teenager making their first appearance for the club, you would expect them to be full of nerves,” Botha said. “Yet here was this kid who was just so calm and collected. It was really unusual. The one thing that always sticks in my mind about him was that he was never fazed by the occasion, whether that was making his club debut in the LV Cup or playing in a European semi-final or Premiership final.”

Later that year Saracens took an under-strength team to Romania for a pre-season match against Timisoara Saracens in which Botha and Itoje started together in the second row. “They had an enormous pack, while we had a couple of young props,” Botha said. “It was a really tough day at the office. You do get those days where you get beaten up but those tend to be the ones where you learn the most about people’s character. Maro was the guy who refused to be bullied.”

Itoje made his breakthrough the next season, 2014-15. The idea was for Itoje to play in A League and LV Cup matches with a few replacement appearances. He duly captained Saracens to trophies in both competitions and was soon making a mess of the club’s best-laid plans.

“He forced our hand,” Paul Gustard, then Saracens defence coach, said. “The plan was never to start him in those games. We simply had to find game time for him. We have got established internationals and Premiership players to choose from, but he went past them. We could not hold him back any more.”

The demonstration of that faith was starting the 20-year-old in the European Cup semi-final against Clermont and the Premiership final against Bath. “I don’t think we truly knew what we had unearthed in Maro,” Alistair Hargreaves, who captained Saracens that season, said. “All we knew was that we just had to get him on the field and good things happened.

“Those big performances in the European Cup were the point where you really sat up and paid notice. You realised this was more than a flash in the pan; this guy has got real class. That season, we started the game with Maro as man of the match and someone else would have to do something really special to take it off him.

“What you have to remember about Maro is that it is a huge ask for someone so young to perform at the level he does as consistently as he does. Of course, there are games where you say ‘What a fantastic performance’ on the big stage, but he is just as good against Cardiff Blues in the LV Cup.”

Both Botha and Hargreaves have no doubt that Itoje will be ready for the sternest challenge of his career on Saturday. “He thrives on the big games – every time he steps up to the next level,” Botha said.

“There is no doubt that he has proved he has the mettle to perform on the big occasion,” Hargreaves said. “He will be expecting big things of himself, and, in turn, we can expect big things from him.”