It’s a little bit of a bore, and even a tad insulting to the grand old Championship, that every second edition of the Guinness Six Nations is viewed in the prism of either an upcoming World Cup or a British & Irish Lions tour. But, heck, let’s go for it already.
It’s impossible, really, not to take note of one of the subplots to this Ireland-England opener, which arises from Steve Borthwick’s decision to bequeath the English captaincy to Maro Itoje. This could be a game-changer, both to this match and the choice of captain for this summer’s Lions tour.
Not since Sam Warburton was chosen by Warren Gatland as the youngest captain of the Lions in 2013 at the age of 24 has there been such a relative lack of obvious, or at any rate experienced, candidates.
Can Ireland afford to lose to England?
Akin to Warburton, Caelan Doris is only 26 and even newer to captaincy at provincial or national level, having only assumed the role for Leinster and Ireland fully this season.
As things stand, Doris is probably the favourite for the role, but so much hinges, as is always the case, on the Six Nations which precedes Andy Farrell’s selections. Warburton captained Wales to a successful defence of their title in 2013 when chosen by Gatland, and were Ireland to complete a historic three-peat, the case for Doris would be compelling.
However, enter Itoje.
Now 30, it’s a wonder that he’s had to wait so long. After all, he has been labelled an FEC (Future England Captain) ever since he led his country to the Under-20 World Cup title in 2014. But, critically, one person disagreed, namely his England head coach for seven years, Eddie Jones.
“I might be wrong, but I am not sure Maro is a future England captain,” Jones said in an excerpt from his 2021 book ‘Leadership’.
“He is going to be one of the great players, but Maro is very inward-looking. He drives himself rather than anyone else. He doesn’t usually influence people off the field.
“Maro might be able to develop this skill and relate to people even more effectively, but he has work to do here. We’ve sent Maro to acting classes, which is having a beneficial effect. He speaks more influentially now, and I am hopeful he can develop more communication and leadership skills. Acting brings Maro out of himself.
“The acting classes are a practical step to helping Maro and others share that internal fire and magic which makes them special. We’re always looking to see if we can develop these traits and find the right mix of leaders.”
À la Doris, Itoje was also appointed Saracens captain at the start of the season, and he had a strong and eloquent rebuke to Jones’ remarks after being chosen by Mark McCall.
“I felt that was a wrong diagnosis of who I am. Most people who know me, most people who read those comments who knew me, would say that was an inaccurate conclusion to who I am as a person.
“I guess it was unfortunate that your coach would say something like that about you, but in life not everyone is going to see the things the way you see it. Even if it’s wrong, some people will come to a different conclusion.
“For me it wasn’t necessarily about overreacting to that sort of thing. I just wanted to stay consistent to who I believed I was. I have my network of people of support. Not only at a time like that but in different types of adversity – you always lean on your people ... to try to get different perspectives and opinions.
“For me, reflection is a really important part of what I try to do. I like to think I have a pretty accurate assessment of how I am, what I like, what makes me tick. So, at a time like that you always want to lean on your trusted group, your trusted network of people, and you rely on them to give you honest feedback.”
Giving Jones’ declaration a seemingly Trumpian relationship with the truth, Itoje wittily added: “I can confirm that I never went to acting lessons. I was not waltzing across a stage or practising my Shakespearean prose.
“Part of being a professional rugby player is always looking at ways to improve, at ways to project, articulate and communicate in a more effective manner. I worked with the psychologist at the time in terms of how to communicate more clearly and get a message across in a more effective manner.
[ Six Nations guide to Ireland: Fixtures, prospects and who to watchOpens in new window ]
“A lot of my heroes are leaders. I studied politics at university and one of my heroes is Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. His energy, his passion, his conviction for what he believed – Ghanaian independence and African independence – for me was very inspirational, reading about it and learning about.
“One of my big sporting idols was Muhammad Ali. In a similar vein, I have so much respect for him for what he did in the ring, I have even more respect for what he did outside of the ring.
“Patrick Vieira was a big hero of mine. He was tough. Extremely tough. He was a no-nonsense player, he was elegant. I loved his spats with Roy Keane in the tunnel. He was graceful, he didn’t seem like the loudest man in the room but he had a presence about him. He knew he had the respect of his team-mates and he was a winner. He was captain of Arsenal during their most successful period ... what’s not to like?
“What I found, whether it is sport or business or politics, there are key trends that tend to stay consistent among the different disciplines, whether it is leading by example, trying to be authentic, whether it is being a good person and being nice to people.”
Itoje took over the England captaincy in-game during the summer tour and autumn series, albeit England’s sequence of close defeats might count against him.
But if Itoje leads England to a victory over the back-to-back champions at the Aviva Stadium then his candidature will be seriously launched, and one can imagine that Borthwick said something along those lines to Itoje.
Not that the Lions captaincy will be uppermost in the minds of either Doris or Itoje. Captaining their countries against each other will be more than sufficient motivation.
Yet Itoje also has one advantage in the Lions captaincy stakes, namely that he has been on two tours, has been an ever-present in two Test series and has been serenaded on both by the Red Army.
Highly articulate, you’d imagine Itoje will seek to lead from the front as Doris does. The son of Nigerian parents, captaining England from the start for the first time will be a huge motivation for him. As might Jones’ words.
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