{"id":609203,"date":"2026-05-28T21:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/609203\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T21:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:54:11","slug":"ex-england-stars-springboks-test-is-the-only-window-to-rest-maro-itoje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/609203\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-England stars: Springboks Test is ‘the only window’ to rest Maro Itoje"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

There is no better time than this summer for captain Maro Itoje to be rested, according to three former England stars.<\/p>\n

Head coach Steve Borthwick has yet to make a call on whether the experienced forward and leader will miss the Nations Championship matches with England taking on South Africa, Fiji and Argentina.<\/p>\n

No better opportunity<\/p>\n

However, he has stated that some senior players may be rested for the three matches and former scrum-half Ben Youngs believes that there is no better time before the upcoming Rugby World Cup for Itoje<\/a> to take some time off. He adds that it is very much needed after the lock\u2019s efforts with Saracens, the Lions and England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think about the Lions tour and the load that he\u2019s had not only as an England player but also as a Saracen and a Lion, there\u2019ll be a lot of, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re losing that experience\u2019 but one thing it gives other people an opportunity,\u201d Youngs said on the For the Love of Rugby podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got George Martin who\u2019s now fit again, who has missed a bucketload of rugby, so he can slot in. You\u2019ve got Ollie Chessum who is doing a great job in captaining Leicester Tigers this season; he could potentially come, and I\u2019d love to see him maybe given the opportunity to captain England. But the big thing for me is we\u2019re not far out from a World Cup, and if you\u2019re going to rest Maro, this is probably the only window that you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision should be taken out of his hands<\/p>\n

Former England and Harlequins captain Chris Robshaw joined Youngs and co-host Dan Cole on the podcast. The 39-year-old agreed with Youngs that Itoje should be rested this summer and highlighted a factor that many people are overlooking.<\/p>\n

He believes that the England captain will be reluctant to take the break and perhaps the decision should be taken out of his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the other thing that people probably don\u2019t take into account is Maro hasn\u2019t only played for these teams; he has captained them,\u201d the former flanker remarked.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, every team he\u2019s gone into, he\u2019s always had to be front and centre; he\u2019s had to have the energy. He can\u2019t really shirk anything, can\u2019t hide it. Whether that be Lions with England, unfortunately, he had the loss of his mother, which would have taken a lot out of him. And then he goes back to post-England stuff, back to Saracens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I was Quins and England captain. At that stage whether I had a good or bad campaign with England and you\u2019ve been away from club for a long time you\u2019re one of the senior guys you\u2019re the captain the coaches expect you to be front of stage straight away, so you\u2019ve got to be the energy again because obviously you\u2019re one of the experienced, the high earners all that kind of stuff and it does drain you.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s worrying injury list ahead of Nations Championship as Steve Borthwick sweats over key men<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLook, no one wants to be rested, especially if you\u2019re captain, and it\u2019s that other thing where you give someone else an opportunity, but as you said, someone needs to make that call for him and say, \u2018You know what, this is the right thing for you. This is the right thing for England.\u2019 And I personally think it\u2019s a great decision. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s very hard, but for him, have a summer off, then have a good pre-season at the club with a World Cup coming up soon; it\u2019s his only real time to have a good pre-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could probably have six or seven weeks. He can slowly get into it. I\u2019m sure in his body he\u2019s got some knocks and niggles, but I think it\u2019s a great decision and it\u2019ll be interesting how this summer tour goes with where the games are as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Mitchell OUT? Ranking seven England scrum-half options as Northampton Saints \u2018proper job\u2019 injury leaves Steve Borthwick with nervous wait<\/a><\/p>\n

Can England cope without Maro Itoje?<\/p>\n

That prompted Youngs to ask the question whether England can afford to rest Itoje for the match against the Springboks at Ellis Park, to which Cole emphatically responded \u2018Yes\u2019.<\/p>\n

He argues that in hindsight, he should have missed the Six Nations and didn\u2019t benefit from a controlled return to play that Ireland players did.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaro never got the opportunity. On reflection, you\u2019d have probably rested him in the Six Nations if you knew how the Six Nations would have gone because at the start of the tournament you could see they weren\u2019t physically firing,\u201d the former prop said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have had a good block of six weeks of just decompressing and giving them time, which you\u2019ll get back in a year\u2019s time, but I think in the autumn you rest and you rely on the squad depth because there\u2019s also some decisions in that squad where we talk about having a 34-man squad for the World Cup, there are some decisions there you need to know who is your third choice or fourth choice lock. To find depth, you have to test people and find out about them, and at some point you\u2019ve got to play the Springboks potentially at the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

World Cup is the goal<\/p>\n

Robshaw argued that there is no better litmus test for an England player than facing the Springboks at Ellis Park, adding that it\u2019s a great opportunity for Borthwick to find that next layer of leadership in the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is their goal; that\u2019s what they\u2019re going to be judged on if they lose in Ellis Park, which of course we don\u2019t want, but it\u2019s going to be hard, isn\u2019t it? We\u2019ve all been there. It\u2019s a tough place to go. It\u2019s not the end of the world [if England lose] as long as it\u2019s a good performance, they make it competitive, all that kind of stuff. Of course, you want to win, but the goal is that World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for Steve, and the coaching group, Maro is a captain. Like, he is the leader. He is the focus point, but who\u2019s next on that rank? Is it Chessum, who is brilliant for Leicester and looks like a future England captain, but obviously, if there are a couple of injuries, that squad gets a little bit stressed. Who are those voices that are really kind of stepping up? It\u2019s a great hostile environment; if ever you want to learn about your players, it\u2019s going to Ellis Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Ben Youngs: Why \u2018aggressive\u2019 and \u2018subtle\u2019 Benhard Janse van Rensburg doesn\u2019t have the \u2018question marks\u2019 of other England centres<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no better time than this summer for captain Maro Itoje to be rested, according to three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[309,348,3482,15700,50,5903,4247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-609203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-england","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-maro-itoje","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}