Eddie Jones never turned Maro Itoje to captain his nation during his eight years as England coach. Now, the longest serving international coach in the game, who finished with the highest winning percentage of any man to oversee England, will run his eye over Itoje in the first Test he leads after Jones signed up to be a pundit for ITV.
If England’s Six Nations campaign wasn’t already fascinating enough, with Jones’ former right-hand man Steve Borthwick under severe pressure after a poor end-of-year campaign and two underwhelming Six Nations campaigns, the arrival of the proactive Australian will add plenty of intrigue and lip service behind the microphone.
Jones will provide expert commentary for England’s five Six Nations Tests, beginning against Ireland on February 2 AEDT, alongside Jonny Wilkinson, Brian O’Driscoll and Maggie Alphonsi.
However, those hoping he would grace the screens alongside Clive Woodward will be left disappointed, with England’s only World Cup-winning coach finishing up with the broadcaster following the 2023 tournament in France.
Eddie Jones (L) will provide expert analysis on Steve Borthwick’s England Six Nations campaign. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Borthwick enters the Six Nations under huge pressure after a disappointing second half of 2024 where his side suffered heartbreaking late defeats to the All Blacks and Wallabies.
But it is the movement in Borthwick’s backroom over the past nine months that has left the Rugby Football Union feeling uneasy, with highly respected assistants Felix Jones and Aled Walters abruptly quitting.
As such, insiders suggest Borthwick needs at least three wins to keep his job through to the 2027 World Cup Down Under.
Nor has Borthwick been helped by a recent injury crisis that has seen several of his regular starters be ruled out of their tournament opener.
Former captain Jamie George, whose axing from the top leadership job rocked the England camp, will miss the trip to Dublin because of a hamstring injury.
While Alex Mitchell, the impressive halfback, is racing the clock to be fit after suffering a leg injury during Northampton’s two-point win over Munster.
Borthwick has also lost the scrum half Jack van Poortvliet (knee), the No8 Alex Dombrandt (calf) and the lock Alex Coles (wrist).
Much has been made of Itoje’s rise to the captaincy a decade after the Saracens lock led England’s under-20s to the world championship.
England head coach Steve Borthwick (R) and captain Maro Itoje (L) during the launch of the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship at Spazio Field in Rome. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Jones intriguingly never turned to Itoje to captain despite some obvious leadership qualities and raised eyebrows when he described the Lions lock as “inward-looking” in his second book.
Itoje, who recently completed his MBA at Warwick Business School, took a leaf out of Martin Johnson’s book by saying he intended to first and foremost lead by action.
“We often speak about great leaders and what they do, or great captains, and first and foremost, the most important thing, without any shadow of a doubt, is that you play well,” Itoje said as the leaders of the Six Nations gathered in Rome for a pre-tournament event. “That’s the most important thing. That’s more important than any speech you can make, that’s more important than any interview that I could give, or how I walk, how I talk.
“People listen to your words, but they follow your actions. So first and foremost, that is a big priority for the team. And secondly, I would say, probably from a team point of view, we need to work harder. We need to run harder. We need to be more together and, I guess I’m the captain, but it’s not just me.
“Who is going to be the catalyst of change? It’s all the senior guys. It’s Jamie, it’s Ellis [Genge], it’s Ben [Earl], it’s Henry Slade, it’s all the senior guys in our team, Marcus [Smith], Fordy [George Ford], Fin [Smith], we need to, as a collective, work harder for the team and get the right results.
“I don’t think I’ve ever put on an English shirt and not felt both of those two things. There’s always an element of pressure when you play for England, whether you’re on the bench in the squad or the starting 15. But what an opportunity, it’s a tremendous opportunity, and I think the potential from the last year, I’ll be first to admit that it didn’t go all the way we wanted. But I think what is fair to say is that one thing we did show was a lot of potential.
“When we did get it right and when we put patches of our game, we did show a lot of potential. So, there’s a whole load of promise, there’s a whole load of potential for us to realise, I guess, you know, it’s, my role is to help us realise that.”
