The Case for Maro Itoje

Eddie Jones made an interesting point earlier this week when he suggested that lock Maro Itoje was perhaps being over-refereed by officials.

There is little doubt that Itoje – an outstanding athlete and rugby player – plays the game at an intensity that few can match. In common parlance he plays his rugby very much “on the edge” although the wider perception currently is that he is on the wrong side of wherever that edge might be.

Certainly five personal penalties conceded against Wales is not a stat to be proud of, although having watched the match again (my general anger having subsided) I think there is a case for suggesting that three of those penalties were, at best, borderline.

The first of these, where Itoje managed to get to Welsh scrum half Kieran Hardy following a lineout, seemingly knocking the ball from Hardy’s grasp, was given as a deliberate knock on. Harsh, I thought. A knock on, possibly (although Monsieur Gauzere’s definition of what constitutes a knock on remains up for debate), but worthy of no more than a scrum to Wales.

Later in the first half Itoje was able to scrag Hardy again, ripping the ball from him as the pair fell to the ground. Penalty to Wales, deemed M. Gauzere, for playing the ball on the ground after the tackle. Again, harsh, as it appeared to me that Itoje gained possession before the tackle was completed.

And then in the second half Itoje landed on the wrong side at a lineout, an offence for which he had previously been penalised in the first half. This time, however, rather than attempt to disrupt the Wales maul as he had done earlier, Itoje extricated himself quickly and did not interfere. Frankly if that was a penalty then you would have to award a penalty at pretty much every lineout.

So, three out of the five penalties given against Itoje, whilst not necessarily major miscarriages of justice, might not have been given by another referee on another day. And yet he is widely being castigated as some kind of loose cannon.

I am not suggesting for one minute that Maro Itoje is squeaky clean – but, as the above examples demonstrate, I really don’t think he is being given any benefit of the doubt by referees at the moment. Why this is, we can only speculate but, given that this appears to be the reality in which he finds himself, he clearly needs to adapt. 

Holding back is clearly not in Maro Itoje’s nature and dialling down a few notches on the intensity is likely to affect his performance levels for the worse but perhaps it is what he needs to do in order that he gets back into referees’ collective good books. Right now it appears to me that they are looking for any excuse to penalise him which is not a good state of affairs. 

As things stand, therefore, the answers do probably lie within Itoje’s hands. 

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was