A few eyebrows were raised when the captain didn’t feature in the first game on Australian soil last weekend, but there was a reason to rest him. Two reasons, actually.
Farrell needed to see his other locks, for one, and, for another, Itoje looked as if he needed a rest when putting in a pretty low-key performance in the defeat against Argentina. It wouldn’t have been a huge shock had Farrell given him another rest day on Wednesday, but he hasn’t.
Itoje has played a huge number of minutes – almost 2,200 – this season for club and country. That’s 1,000 minutes more than Ollie Chessum and Scott Cummings and between 700-800 more than Joe McCarthy and James Ryan.
The captain is among the most-played Lions this season, but in Brisbane he declared himself fresh and ready to roll again.
“Often when you talk about game minutes and load, part of it is the physical load, but a lot of it is the mental load,” he said.
“Coming into this new environment, spending time with new players, new systems, new coaches, everything, has been really refreshing for me. In my career, I’ve had a lot of consistency with club and country, so just to have a different stimulus has been great.”
In some banter at the top table, Farrell said that Itoje, 30, looked good despite all those minutes played. “Looks great, look at the smile,” said the coach. “No wrinkles, skin is fresh,” replied the lock. “Botox?” asked Farrell. “No botox,” laughed Itoje.
Game number three is around the corner. More amusement in the aftermath and they’ll have done their job.
