Maro Itoje crowned world's best lock in 2020

England star Maro Itoje has been crowned the world's best lock after defeating Springboks second rower Eben Etzebeth in a fan-voted poll on social media.

The 25-year-old British and Irish Lions representative received nearly 58 percent of the vote from fans on RugbyPass' Facebook and Instagram accounts as part of the Straight 8 Fan Vote campaign to determine the best player on the planet in each position.

Itoje and Etzebeth were left as the last players standing going into the third and final round of voting after both players emerged unscathed from the quarter-final and semi-final stages of voting.

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After having dominated Etzebeth's international teammate RG Snyman in the first round with 73 percent of the votes, Itoje backed that up with the same winning margin over Irish star James Ryan in the semi-final.

It wasn't such smooth sailing for Etzebeth, who claimed 58 percent of the votes in his quarter-final match-up with Wales skipper Alun Wyn Jones, before controversially seeing off All Blacks powerhouse Brodie Retallick with only 50.5 percent of fans' backing.

Etzebeth's shrinking winning margin eventually cost him in the final, though, as Itoje's glittering career to date proved to be too much to turn down.

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