Maro Itoje talks the frustrations of burnout, autumn internationals and having the catchiest song in rugby

The controversial 11-month season is already a reality the flanker deals with

Itoje has become one of the biggest forces in northern hemisphere rugby (Vitality)

Ask Maro Itoje how he feels about taking a rare weekend off, or voluntarily missing one of the many must-see matches in a season packed with club and country commitments, and he speaks in terms of anguish, not relief.

“There's a feeling you get before games that it's hard to replicate in other situations,” Itoje says as he surveys the sunset on a quiet midweek afternoon at his club Saracens’ Allianz Park stadium. “It’s a mixture of anxiety and nervousness and excitement that I don't think you can fully replicate in other life moments.

“Even in pre-season when you go for a long period of time without playing, that is the feeling and it is not a very comfortable feeling. You crave it, because of the excitement.”

This is the chapter of rugby’s burnout story no player likes to relate; the page they would prefer to leave blank. It is not a situation of Itoje’s making that the cluttered calendar moves almost relentlessly from the recent run of Premiership and European Cup matches into England’s autumn internationals, with the rest of the season comprising further big club dates and the Six Nations Championship, topped off by a summer tour to South Africa and with the 2019 World Cup in Japan on the near horizon.

But Itoje has just taken a well-earned rest. He missed last Saturday’s win for Saracens over London Irish after a run of eight straight appearances since the start of the season. He was not supposed to play the opening fixture, but Sarries had injuries so he turned out in the back row, like a Rolls Royce hauled out of the garage when it should have been undergoing its annual service.

As far as anyone can tell - considering the garrulous England head coach Eddie Jones has been obliged to be cautious about his plans - there could be further downtime for Itoje during the national team’s autumn series against Argentina, Australia, and Samoa in November.

“These decisions are not made to spite me,” Itoje says, calmly. “If a decision is made along those lines it will have been made for the long-term future.

(Vitality (Vitality)

“Saracens have been very good to me, so I helped them even if it cut my holiday short a little bit. The only difference was that I'd have had an extra week of integration.

“[But] when I see Saracens play and I see England play, and I'm not in it, that's when I feel 'sugar, I want to be with the boys'.

“I remember when I broke my hand in the autumn last year, I went to the England games to support the boys. And obviously you don't wish bad on anyone but you always want to play. There's times where I've been rotated for one week, and I'm at home watching and I'm like 'sugar, I want to be there'.”

There is an air of invincibility about the 23-year-old Itoje, part of it emanating from his stunning win-loss record. Since he became a regular starter for Saracens and England in the 2015-16 season, he has played 54 club matches in the Premiership and Europe, winning 47, drawing two and losing just five. For England, he has 11 wins from 12 appearances.

And then there was the Lions tour to New Zealand this past summer, when Itoje came off the bench during the first-Test loss in Auckland, and started the draw and win which squared the series. The middle match had a memorably raucous atmosphere in Wellington, and featured thousands of Lions supporters serenading their new young totem with chorus after chorus of “Oh Maro Itoje” to the tune of the White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’.

Maro Itoje during a scrum (Getty)

But there is a strain in playing, and Itoje feels it the same as any other mortal. He has played 72 times since the summer of 2015. “The body is good, I'm still relatively young,” he says. “But I would say the game is a lot quicker and a lot more physical than it used to be. Guys are becoming a lot better athletes and I'm sure that's a result of better conditioners and improvements in sports science. The collisions are getting more impactful.

“The new laws have just made it a little bit harder for people like me to tackle scrum-halves. And probably the biggest thing is the scrum, encouraging teams to play off the back a bit more than some teams have done. There is a greater number of collisions.

“I've had times when I've felt fantastic, when the Saturday game has been okay, I've had a good recovery on Sunday and then by Monday I've felt good. I've had other times when you don't spring out of bed on a Monday feeling fantastic and you'll only feel fresh two days before the next game. The intention of the conditioners is to make sure you are fully okay by the weekend. I make sure I have my pool recovery before every game, which is something that I didn't do last year.

“Sometimes training is harder than the games. England really do push us when we are in that environment.”

Itoje returned to Saracens early to help settle the injury crisis (Getty)

Itoje places trust in Saracens’ performance director, Phil Morrow, who worked on the Lions tour and is currently participating in the Professional Game Board’s sports-science advisory group, analysing data to propose the optimum season and off-season.

Nevertheless, history is littered with tales of sportspeople grasping their chance in the absence of others. If Itoje sits out the autumn, it could hand an opportunity to a team-mate – or a rival.

Jones is categorising England’s second- and back-row positions amorphously as “back five”, and there are contenders old and new for Itoje’s spot, including Courtney Lawes, with whom he dovetailed as lock and blindside flanker during last season’s Six Nations.

“Courtney is a fantastic player and a nice guy, we get on well,” says Itoje. “He's been fantastic for [Northampton] Saints even though they haven't done as well as they would have liked, he's been their standout. He’s obviously another athletic guy who gets around really well.”

Both men toured with the Lions, and Itoje revelled in it, although he says it hasn’t changed his life. There have been no ingratiating renditions of ‘Oh Maro Itoje’ up and down Mill Hill Broadway near his north-London home. “No, my team-mates do it, but only to take the mick out of me,” he says. “Plus the Allianz Park faithful [do it].” Is he recognised on the street? “It depends how I dress. But no one is chasing me down the street with cameras, it is all good.”

Maro Itoje celebrates the Lions' memorable victory in Wellington with fans (Getty)

More reflectively, he adds: “Did I see myself differently before the tour, that is probably the question. I don't think so. You picked up on how other players did certain things and their take on things, but have I seen myself differently? I don't think so.

“The reaction in Wellington was cool, it was real, real special – a special moment for me and one that I will look back upon very fondly.”

Referring to which, television coverage of Saracens’ recent win over Ospreys in Europe showed Itoje sharing a chat with fellow Lion, Alun Wyn Jones, at the final whistle. Was it a conversation about autumn selection, or burnout, or who’ll win the European Cup?

“I was telling him that his hair was falling off and that he would need a transplant to get his hair back on,” says Itoje, laughing. “That is what happened, but it was nice to see him. That was the first time that I had seen him since the tour, and it was cool.”

Maro Itoje is an Ambassador for health and life insurer Vitality, inspiring healthy and active lifestyles. To find out more, visit www.vitality.co.uk