‘Cool, calm and collected’: Maro Itoje cements Lions legacy in second Test cauldron
One day the clarity may come for Maro Itoje and he will be able to recall exactly what he said in his closing arguments to referee Andrea Piardi as the Italian official deliberated over a decision that eventually went the way of the British and Irish Lions. In the immediacy of victory, Itoje’s recollections were a little foggy but it is fair to assume that his words in support of the legality of Jac Morgan’s challenge were not the fine-tuned case for the defence of an experienced barrister.
“I don’t really know, to be honest,” Itoje offered when asked what had been uttered as he, Piardi and opposite number Harry Wilson gathered. “It was fine. Naturally, their captain was trying to get his point across and, in my view, argue for something that didn’t happen. I guess I was just arguing for something that did happen. Fortunately, Jac was accurate with what he was doing and everything was fine.”
What Itoje will remember forever are the moments after the decision came down and the celebrations that followed. While conducting his post-match press conference duties, the Lions caption was being serenaded from the dressing room next door by the rest of his squad, already bouncing about to start a party that carried on long into the night. Before he had even left the field, though, Itoje was conducting the crowd and inviting them to join him in a repeated roar of “Lions!”. The lock has his own chant, of course – it is rare in rugby for the individual to be celebrated in such a way but the adapted tune of “Seven Nation Army” has been an anthem for travelling fans ever since the second Test in Wellington in 2017 where he really announced his arrival.
Itoje was but a cub then; now he is the Lion king. As he is familiar with, the list of Test series winning skippers is short in the professional age. On Thursday evening, the tourists were visited by Martin Johnson, one of only two successful predecessors over the last 30 years – but even he lost his second series in charge, which formed a key part of his messaging to Itoje and the group. Perhaps, in the tough moments at 23-5 down, it helped instil the unwavering belief which helped the Lions produce their biggest ever comeback.
What was clear both in those tricky first-half periods and the final frenzied 10 minutes was the calm and composure that Itoje and his fellow leaders had. The Lions were pretty sketchy for great passages of the game, backing up errors with errors and penalties to allow a very good Australia to build their advantage. It would have been easy, given those circumstances, to panic; that they did not says a lot about the character of a squad that had not really been tested on this tour.
“The general gist of it was our ill-discipline or our lack of composure or our inaccuracy was leading to their positive outcomes,” Itoje explained. “Often, when there’s a bit of a distance and you’re losing a bit from a score point of view, you can think, ‘oh my goodness, we’re losing the game, we need to score’. I think the right approach is just to focus on the next play and just to focus on the next outcome or next passage of play.
“That way, you mentally get yourself into the game. Once we got that far behind, the message was just: ‘This is where we are at the moment. Let’s just focus on the next passage of play.’ Then we started to build ourselves back in.”
It is hard to believe that Itoje began 2025 without ever having captained a senior international game. The assumption that he would rise to the highest office was doubted by few, even when his outward leadership was dismissed by Eddie Jones, and he has come of age again in a most enjoyable last six months that has also included his wedding. There is a world where he was not leader on this trip – Caelan Doris had presented an equally excellent case for the captaincy before injury – but it is hard to imagine anyone else leading the pride now. Itoje, famously, does not swear and picks and chooses his moments to speak; some of the more forceful pre-match speeches on this tour have been delivered by Ellis Genge, while Finn Russell, Jamison Gibson-Park and Owen Farrell were all key influences at the end at the MCG.
“He is cool, calm and collected,” head coach Andy Farrell said of his skipper. “I thought he was outstanding in his captaincy. He was across the game. As the game started to unfold in front of us, he was calm. He understood what was needed and how we communicated with the referee. The flow of the game, he was absolutely spot on. If you listen back to the messaging that was on the referee’s mic in time, you’ll realise just what a class act he was.”
Sitting down with him days before his 30th birthday last year, it was clear that Itoje felt there was still plenty more to achieve within the game. While he went past 100 international caps in the first match of this series, and a ton will soon follow in English white, the idea of personal milestones has limited interest to the lock if not accompanied by team success. In truth, he did not have his best individual game in the second Test – Itoje himself admitted he made too many errors, while he looked to be rattled, irked and targeted by former Saracens engine room colleague Will Skelton. But that will be forgotten in time – and the magical memories of Melbourne will stay with Itoje forever.
