Maro Itoje's verdict on the Mona Lisa after a trip to the Louvre

Maro Itoje has soaked up so much of Paris this week that the England lock even gave his verdict on the Mona Lisa on Friday ahead of this weekend’s Guinness Six Nations finale. Away games in the championship have traditionally seen teams fly out two days before a match with the focus unwaveringly solely on the game.

However, the decision by England to scrap their original plan for the week’s round five game in France saw them fly out two days earlier than normal - on Tuesday - and this additional time afforded the players the chance to enjoy a level of freedom they don’t usually get.  

England trained on Wednesday at the Stade Francais training ground but Thursday was a down day and numerous players put it to use by exploring the sights and sounds of the French capital rather than staying in the team hotel and watching the horse racing from Cheltenham. 

Itoje was one of those to go and explore and a visit to the Louvre was included on his itinerary, the art fan making a point of having a good look at the Mona Lisa. “We have been training a bit but normally when you come to away fixtures, we fly in on the Thursday, recovery on Thursday night, Friday is a captain’s run and personally I don’t really like to do too much the day before a game. 

“Then you play the Saturday and head home on Sunday morning so you don’t really get the opportunity to see the city or see the town. That is pretty much the same in the Premiership as well, but the way the schedule changed this week gave us the opportunity to explore a little bit.

“I have been to Paris quite a few times before both with rugby and for pleasure. I had seen a few of the sights before but I saw the Eiffel Tower, went to see Ms Lisa, first name Mona, so I went to the Louvre. It has just been nice to see some of the sights.” It’s the sort of freedom that generally hasn’t been possible until now in these pandemic times due to the bubble safety measures surrounding the England team.   

“These two pandemic years, if this game was even six or seven months ago there would probably be no chance of that happening, so it was nice to be getting closer and closer to the feeling of normality,” continued Itoje, who was then asked for his verdict on the famed Mona Lisa.  

“It’s alright, it’s not bad. It’s not bad. (Leonardo) da Vinci is not bad but I kind of like Foster Sakyiamaha, I like Oluwole Omofemi, they are a bit more my style but da Vinci is not bad too.”