Maro Itoje insists that the newcomers on the tour of the British and Irish lions will be treated differently by Australia in 2017 than the controversial ‘geography’.
Scotland Trio Rory Sutherland, Ewan Ashman and Darcy Graham, together with Andy Farrell’s Men will swell with the men from the team to 44 in the aftermath of Jamie Osborne, Jamie George and Tom Clarkson.
The new faces have been introduced to offer coverage that prevents key staff to play in the downstairs while they are back -up back -up in the next Tuesday match against a First Nations and Pasifika XV.
Farrell’s decision to turn to that of the tour of Scotland through the nearby New Zealand, recalled memories eight years ago when Finn Russell, Allan Dell, Kristian Dacey, Tomas Francis, Cory Hill and Gareth Davie joined the Lions of Warren Gatland.
Chosen because of their geographical location with their national parties and not for merit, they were avoided by some squadrans and Gatland later revealed that internal concern about “devaluing the sweater” did not force him to use the bank against the hurren.
The lions of Itoje will follow a different approach with their captain and explains: “we are all in this together”.
“I have no doubt that they will be welcomed,” said Itoje for Saturday’s first test in Brisbane.
“The boss, Andy, has invoked them because he believes they will help the lions to reach their goal to win a downside.
“All players who are engaged are quality players. They are players like everyone else in the team, have a high level of experience and have achieved things in their career.
“We are all in this together. It is us and they are not. It doesn’t matter if there is a late call-up. We have seen in the past how late call-ups have had a huge impact on the Tour in positive ways.
“I have no doubt that everyone who has called will play an important role to help the team achieve their goal.”
In the meantime, Itoje has doubled on Henry Pollock’s revelation that the lions are determined to complete a series of Whitewash from Australia – a goal noted by the hosts.
“That is definitely the ambition. It goes without saying – nobody wants to lose a game,” said Itoje.
“It would be a bit strange if one of my teammates said we want to win two and lose one.
“If you asked one of the Wallabies players, I hope it is also their ambition to win all the games.
“We want to win, but the only thing we are focused on is this Saturday. The other two games will take care of themselves.”
After playing four games in four different states in 11 days, the lions are located in Brisbane, where the preparations for the first test have begun,
“We know that there is a big step higher. As we get closer to the game, we will sharpen and grind,” Itoje said.
“There is a healthy tension in the team because we know that this is where we worked.”
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