New Saracens captain Maro Itoje counters Eddie Jones' criticism

Maro Itoje has rejected Eddie Jones’ negative assessment of his leadership as the “wrong diagnosis” after being entrusted with the Saracens captaincy for the new season. Itoje has been appointed as Owen Farrell’s successor at the north London club three years after his former England head coach Jones was scathing of his prospects of ever leading the national side.

Jones, writing in his book ‘Leadership’, viewed the Lions second row as “inward-looking”, adding that he “drives himself rather than anyone else. He doesn’t usually influence people off the field”. Jones’ opinion has since been proved wrong as Itoje took over from Jamie George as England skipper when his Saracens teammate left the field on the summer tour to Japan and New Zealand.

The comments made by the Australian, who was sacked in 2022, raised eyebrows at the time given he was still in charge at Twickenham and for Itoje it was a mistaken characterisation. “I felt that was a wrong diagnosis of who I am. Most people who know me and most people who read those comments who knew me, would say that was an inaccurate conclusion to who I am as a person,” Itoje said.

“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. 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.

“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.”

Jones claimed to have sent Itoje to acting classes to draw out his “internal fire”, but the Saracens forward denies these took place. “I was not waltzing across a stage and practising my Shakespearean prose,” he said.

Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, and Muhammad Ali are appreciated as heroic leaders by Itoje, but closer to home the Arsenal fan admires the influence Patrick Vieira had on the Gunners. “During the 2000s, Patrick Viera was in his prime and in his pomp. He was a big hero of mine. He was tough. Extremely tough,” he said.

“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 teammates and he was a winner. He was captain of Arsenal during their most successful period… what’s not to like?”

When Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall asked Itoje to be skipper during the summer he accepted immediately. The England captaincy is not on his radar, however. “That position is held by my friend and teammate Jamie George, so I’m not commenting on another man’s job. I’ve barely started this one. I want to give my best to this and see where we go,” he said.

“I want to try and be as authentically myself as possible. I want to lead in ways that are natural to me. I don’t want to deviate too much from what has made me the man/player I am today. To be a good leader you have to lead by example. People definitely won’t follow you if you are not walking the walk and that is how I envisage going about my business.”