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Report: Maro Itoje to stay put in Saracens, with announcement imminent
By Ian Cameron
England second row star Maro Itoje looks likely to stay put in Saracens, despite their relegation to RFU Championship next season. Itoje was linked with loan-spells at both Racing 92 and Leicester Tigers, but it looks like the exceptional lock is staying put at Saracens to concentrate on England and next year's Lions tour.
The Sports Mail write that Itoje is set stay after talks to join Racing 92 'broke down'. In April Jacky Lorenzetti has admitted defeat in Racing 92’s ambitious plan to secure the services of Itoje. The reported seven-figure loan deal sparked a row among other Premiership owners who were unwillingly to allow Itoje play for a club abroad and still represent England.
This was despite national team coach Eddie Jones being apparently amenable to allowing his star lock spend a year in the French league and still be available to play for the 2019 World Cup finalists during the 2020/21 Test calendar window.
The loan deal report first emerged on March 13, the same weekend England were due to play away to Italy in the now deferred conclusion to the Guinness Six Nations.
Itoje's current Saracens contract, signed last year, would take him to 2022.
“It’s still to be confirmed but I’m 95 per cent sure where I will be,” said Itoje on the Political Thinking podcast this weekend, suggesting an official announcement is imminent.
Should he stay, Itoje will be in good company, with many of Saracens' biggest names set to stay, including Owen Farrell, Jamie George, the Vunipola brothers and Elliot Daly among others.
Speaking in February, the 2016 European Player of the Year said: “We’ve had discussions with the club about what could potentially happen next year, what things are going to be in place. Nothing has been finalised yet,” Itoje said.
“What has happened, has happened. No one at the club wanted this to happen and no one at the club envisaged this would happen.
“The club have said their piece. They have apologised and my mindset is forward, rather than backwards.”
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Latest Comments
GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.
Go to commentsThe 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.
The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.
You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.
For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.
A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.
Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?
Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?
If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?
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