12 The Times Magazine
just can’t help wondering: what is a
Ralph Lauren fashion model thinking
about as he dives into a ruck?
England rugby international Maro
Itoje considers the question. He touches
the pearl dangling from his left ear
thoughtfully.
“Honestly, that never crosses my
mind. On the pitch I’m never thinking
about clothes or fashion shoots. I’m
totally immersed in the cause. I want that
ball. I’m part of a team that wants to win.”
So you never face down a snarling pack of
bruisers and think, “Guys, not the face, OK?”
“Never. I would never duck a tackle to
protect my face. That thought literally never
occurs to me.”
Rugby union’s Six Nations Championship
is almost upon us. Itoje, a formidable forward
who plays in the second row of the scrum
for London-based Saracens and who is an
England regular, is waiting to hear if he has
been picked. The phone call from coach Eddie
Jones could come at any moment.
“Or not,” the 27-year-old says, chuckling.
“I mean, you never take it for granted. To be
given that place is the privilege of a lifetime
and plenty of players want it.”
The call duly comes, with Itoje named
in Jones’ 36-man squad for the tournament.
So that means next up for Itoje is a five-day
England training camp in Brighton: endless
tactical seminars, weights and Wattbike
sessions and chin-ups with a 74kg weight
strapped round the waist. Most daunting of
all are the 6am calls for “bacon and eggs”.
Guess what? It’s not breakfast. These are
extra, individualised workouts with more
weights, or focused stretching, or sometimes
simply fighting, wrestling on the floor with
a member of the coaching staff.
Off the field, nutritionists will work to
get Itoje – who has won three European
Champions Cups and four Premiership titles
with Saracens, and since making his England
debut aged 21, two Six Nations Championships
- to his optimum playing weight, a sweet spot
around 18st 5lb.
“You need to be just the right composition
of muscle and fat,” he says, sipping a sad-
looking cup of tea with oat milk.
But the food, the training, that’s relatively
easy. At elite level, all players are in good nick.
So what else is there?
“This,” says Itoje, tapping a temple.
“Ninety-five per cent of players are at a
physical peak, so the marginal differences are
now mental. That’s what Eddie Jones and the
team are so good at. We become this wall of
mental strength.”
When Jones first met the teenage Itoje
he told him he was a Vauxhall Viva who
needed to be a BMW. Jones also seemed a
little sceptical of his interest in modelling,
noting Itoje didn’t seem to have many scars.
(Itoje has modelled for Marks & Spencer
as well as Ralph Lauren, and once appeared
on the cover of Tatler with the Duke of
Cambridge’s cousin Lady Amelia Windsor.)
I’m sitting opposite him in an east London
photo studio. He’s 6ft 5in. Even in a normal-
sized chair, he squishes himself up like a dad
in one of those tiny plastic seats at a primary
school parents’ evening. His size 13.5 shoes look
like the sort of thing you’d strap to the roof of
a car before heading off on a canoeing holiday.
But I don’t know what Jones was moaning
about. Close up, there they are. Bruises,
bumps, welts, surgical scars.
“The one over my left eye is from when
I was 15 when I got headbutted in a tackle,”
he says, giving me a tour. “My lip is damaged
and I’ve had operations on a broken jaw and
a hand. My teeth are showing some impacts
and my shins are like a battleground.”
With forwards, it’s the cauliflower ears
though, isn’t it? His ears look OK.
“I don’t want outrageous cauliflowers;
I’ve got little ‘caulis’. But, if you want to win,
you forget pain and risks. Your whole body
is on the line.”
It’s a good time for England. The team
performed well during last year’s autumn
internationals, beating Australia and edging
I
GETTY IMAGES, @MAROITOJE/INSTAGRAM
Playing for Saracens against Worcester Warriors, December 2021
