Somehow, the notion of Maro Itoje bringing what one of his team-mates had described as the additional ‘nastiness and bite’ that was supposed to underpin this new England seemed a little far-fetched. This is the man who has had his pre-marriage guidance counsellor watching his games just lately.
For a time, while the going looked good for England, Itoje deconstructed that notion. When his team-mates lined up in the wrong place for the pre-match anthems, he walked them to the correct spot on the five-metre line.
When the anthems played, he looked like a man wound up like a coiled spring. It wasn’t just the way he hurled out the words. It was that he could not even stand still while in the process of doing so.
For a time, we saw everything from him that had been hoped for in this third iteration of ‘Steve Borthwick‘s England.’ He threw himself at the gainline, won turnover, putting himself at the hub of the wrecking job that England did on Ireland’s rugby, shape, and mindset.
There was something of the night about England in that first half – it was a dirty business at times – and Itoje was the one making quiet supplications to the referee on their behalf.
‘I’m going to need that blue brain when I’m communicating with the referee,’ he’d reflected a few weeks back. ‘Knowing when to push, knowing when to leave him alone.’ When Ireland thought they’d equalised out England’s first try, it was he who pointed out to referee Ben O’Keeffe that Tadhg Beirne had illegally held him in the preceding phase.
Maro Itoje was instrumental as England started brightly in their Six Nations opener vs Ireland
But the England captain was left wondering what might have been after a poor second-half performance saw his side beaten by the reigning champions
His monster tackle seemed to have sent Harry Slade away until the centre’s forearm touched the ball and a knock-on was called. A penalty against Itoje which gave Ireland the lead was preposterous – a barely discernible infringement in the line-out.
There was some incredible line speed from England when they were ascendent: immense, physical pressure, driven by the new captain, shaking Ireland’s midfield into accuracies and mistakes.
By half time, you imagined that the onlooking Andy Farrell, Lions coach, would have seen Itoje, in his mind’s eye, as the man to lead his team, above Caelan Dorris, who now leads Ireland, standing in the shadow of the great old agitator Peter O’Mahony.
How dearly those of an England persuasion wished that what we witnessed in that first half was what the team are going to represent in the month or so ahead. But there are no rewards for periods of skill, promise and ambition, of course.
It was clear that England would tire and that those in reserve would have to carry the torch. The notion that they might do so proved utterly delusional.
Itoje was powerless to deal with the fact that England’s inexperienced substitutes were nothing less than a disaster during a second half in which Ireland scored 22 consecutive points and exposed the red rose nation’s desperate shallowness.
While Harry Randall was slicing a kick back over his head and Chandler Cunningham-South was loitering in midfield, Jack Crowley and Jack Conan were driving Ireland into an easy ascendancy. Men and boys.
Borthwick’s defensive gamble – mobility over muscle – backfired. Itoje was left chasing shadows, filling in the ever-widening holes. Dorris eased back into the ascendency. ‘It was back to the old us,’ he said at the end of it all.
England were unable to deal with Ireland as the game wore on, particularly as less experienced substitutes were introduced
The team must regroup quickly from the defeat with the rampant French lying in wait
Steve Borthwick’s selections are in danger of leading England into another Six Nations abyss
You worry for what that brutal second half examination will do for an England who will be asked to deliver the same kind of total rugby at Twickenham next weekend against a France side who have humiliated Wales.
Itoje was making all the appropriate noises here on Saturday night. His message to the team, he said, had been that ‘the first half was really good and the second half we didn’t quite execute the game plan in terms of field position and territory.’ Which was putting it mildly.
His softly spoken assessment in the press conference theatre was that ‘our role is to learn from this and get better’ – when what this needs is considerably more of the rage that his afternoon had started with.
It’s taken Itoje a long time to rise to the captaincy role which you can clearly see is the honour of his life.
What misfortune to be handed it by a coach who has lost seven Tests in nine, was offering squad inexperience as his excuse last night and, on this evidence, is leading England down into another Six Nations abyss.
