Mark McCall explains the ‘good news’ reason why Maro Itoje is ready to skipper Andy Farrell’s Lions
Maro Itoje at training on the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour in South Africa
Mark McCall has explained why Maro Itoje would thrive as skipper of the 2025 British and Irish Lions. The Saracens and England lock was said for months to be locked in a race with Ireland’s Caelan Doris to captain Andy Farrell’s tour squad in Australia.
However, the conversation surrounding the tour skipper dramatically changed on Monday when Leinster revealed that Doris needed a shoulder operation this week and no update would be provided until after that surgery on whether he would be available to travel to face the Wallabies.
Doris was believed to have had that operation on Tuesday but with an update yet to materialise on a lay-off speculated to be anything between six weeks and six months, the likelihood is that Itoje will now be named by Farrell on Thursday as Lions tour captain.
Appointed Saracens captain at the start of the 2024/25 season, Itoje took over the England captaincy from club and country teammate Jamie George for the 2025 Six Nations.
McCall, who is the London club’s director of rugby, believes his second row now has everything required to become the first England captain of the Lions since Martin Johnson in 2001.
Speaking to reporters ahead of Saracens’ Gallagher Premiership match this Saturday at home to Newcastle, McCall said: “He has thrived on the England captaincy and played really well in the Six Nations, but he has played even better for us since then.
“I have been super impressed…”
“Maro has absolutely thrived on all of that leadership. I asked Owen (Farrell) a few years back when too much leadership is too much leadership because he was doing club and country for a long time.
“We are probably going to have to explore that with Maro at some point. But my guess would be that he loves it and he will want to keep it going.
“Maro is very much a leader by what he does and how consistent he is. He is playing as well as he has ever played, so if he is chosen to be (Lions) captain the good news is that he is right on top of his game at the moment and is as fit as he can be.
“He is feeling good about his body and I have been super impressed with the way he has gone about the captaincy at our club.
“Maro is somebody who delegates when he needs to. He makes sure that when he speaks, people are going to listen because what he says is important.
“He is very, very good at using some of the senior players around him and, of course on any Lions trip, there are going to be lots of good leaders. One of the things that Maro is great at is using that leadership group.”
