{"id":492542,"date":"2026-02-20T14:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/492542\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:13:07","slug":"shell-be-cheering-on-from-heaven-itoje-sad-his-late-mother-will-not-see-him-win-100th-cap-maro-itoje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/492542\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She\u2019ll be cheering on from heaven\u2019: Itoje sad his late mother will not see him win 100th cap | Maro Itoje"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maro Itoje says his late mother, Florence, will be at Twickenham in spirit when the England captain wins his 100th cap in the Six Nations<\/a> showdown with Ireland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

After Florence died in December, the Saracens second-row was absent from the start of England\u2019s pre-tournament training camp in Girona to attend her funeral in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Steve Borthwick\u2019s side must beat Ireland to keep their championship hopes afloat after a sobering defeat in Scotland<\/a> last Saturday, and the 31-year-old said his pride in reaching a century of international caps would be tinged with sadness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways it\u2019s a great milestone but it will obviously be a little bit sad that my mother is not there to witness this,\u201d Itoje said. \u201cI know she would have loved the occasion and loved everything about it. She\u2019s not physically there but I believe she\u2019s spiritually there \u2013 she\u2019ll be cheering on from heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said reaching 100 caps \u201cfeels amazing. Full of pride, happiness, joy and excitement \u2026 there\u2019s my individual excitement but I\u2019m more excited for the team, for us to get out there together and put on a really good performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

England\u2019s defeat at Murrayfield ended a run of 12 consecutive victories and, while the grand slam dream is gone, Itoje insisted they were capable of winning their remaining three championship matches to compete for the title. \u201cIt was frustrating, that is a fair judgment,\u201d he said of the 31-20 loss against Gregor Townsend\u2019s side. \u201cWe have to win all the other games. That is well within our capability. I don\u2019t think that is asking us to climb a mountain \u2013 we just need to make sure we focus on putting in the performance we are capable of.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some key fundamental areas which weren\u2019t good enough: the collision, in the air. We need to bounce back and play with energy and vitality, start attacking the game right from the off. If we do that I think we\u2019ll have a good result this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maro Itoje made his England debut against Italy a decade ago. Photograph: Shaun Botterill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Itoje\u2019s England debut came a decade ago under Eddie Jones \u2013 a 40-9 victory away<\/a> against Italy when he came off the bench for James Haskell. Asked for his memories of that day in Rome, Itoje explained how he has learned to manage the highly charged emotions of international rugby more effectively. \u201cI was really nervous. At the start of my career I didn\u2019t have a full understanding of how to regulate emotions leading up to a Test match,\u201d Itoje said. \u201cI remember thinking: \u2018I\u2019m not sure if I can do this every week,\u2019 because I was putting myself through emotional turmoil.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game is a huge occasion but building so much emotional energy towards it, I probably would have had a heart attack or stroke if I didn\u2019t change my prep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry Pollock of Northampton will line up at No 8 against Ireland, his first start for England after seven appearances from the bench. Kevin Sinfield, the assistant coach, was asked if he had ever encountered a player like the famously energetic Pollock, including during his rugby league career. \u201cI\u2019ve never worked with anybody like that,\u201d Sinfield said. \u201cI\u2019ve never played with anybody like that. Not at his age.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo bring what he brings \u2013 I\u2019ve been around loud players, I\u2019ve been around noisy players, but they haven\u2019t been as good as him and they haven\u2019t been as focused as him. Behind the bravado and what Henry is, there\u2019s a fantastic rugby player there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itoje, who will face several Ireland players he captained on last summer\u2019s victorious British & Irish Lions tour to Australia, added of Pollock: \u201cI think there is a steeliness to him that is perhaps hidden in the energy that he exudes. He does have a toughness and a steeliness to him. The more he plays at this level the more people will see it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maro Itoje says his late mother, Florence, will be at Twickenham in spirit when the England captain wins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-492542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}