Maro Itoje says 'England mode' needs to be switched on quicker
Maro Itoje insists he and his Test team-mates need to ‘flick the switch into England mode’ quicker after shock defeat to Argentina follows recent trend of losses in campaign openers
- England suffered a shock defeat to Argentina at Twickenham at the weekend
- It follows a recent worrying trend of losing games in campaign openers
- Maro Itoje says the trend is something that the England squad is aware of
- He has called on the team to hit the ground running at future campaigns
Maro Itoje admitted that he and his Test team-mates need to switch into ‘England mode’ sooner after arriving from their clubs – to break the cycle of defeats in campaign openers.
The national team lost to Scotland at the start of the last Six Nations, they lost the first match of the summer series in Australia and on Sunday they suffered a shock loss at the hands of Argentina – to begin their autumn programme at Twickenham in disastrous fashion.
Saracens forward Itoje argued that the Red Rose squad need to act faster to re-establish collective identity and cohesion in camp.
England fell to a shock 30-29 defeat against Argentina at Twickenham on Sunday
Maro Itoje (centre) insists England need to get off the marks quicker at future campaigns
‘We now have 11 (Premiership) clubs,’ he said. ‘Everyone is playing a different style of rugby and has a different thought process.
‘We haven’t perhaps been so good at flicking the switch to England mode. That’s something we need to get better at, because that (losing pattern) is not something we want to continue any longer.
‘We know that is becoming a trend. We need to get back on England time, in England mode, with an England way of thinking sooner, and create that team-ship a bit sooner than we have sometimes. It can take a week or two to get going but we need to get going from the off. We all want to improve. We don’t want results like this.’
Itoje was adamant that there are easy-fixes for England after their 30-29 defeat against the Pumas, saying: ‘It really isn’t rocket science.’
England’s opening loss to Argentina follows previous defeats to Scotland in the opening match of the Six Nations this year and to Australia during the summer series
He was in no doubt about the primary factor that must be addressed, adding: ‘Our discipline probably lost us that game. We can’t go on making the same mistakes. We gave away a lot of back-to-back penalties.’
Jack Nowell echoed Itoje’s views, as the Exeter wing said: ‘It’s bloody hard to play a game of rugby when you’re giving away that many penalties. When we are making it that hard for ourselves, we only have ourselves to blame.
‘We’re saying the right things out there, “no silly penalties for offside or not rolling away”. It’s not as if we don’t know what to do out there, we’re just not doing it. When you’re giving a good team like Argentina chances like that, you’re shooting yourselves in the foot.’
Share this article
Source: Read Full Article