Warrior Itoje joins pantheon of Lions captains as McBride pays tribute

Maro Itoje and Willie John McBride were speaking hours apart and from various parts of the world, but a few things connected them. Both were/are locks and, as of last Saturday, both knew how it feels to lead the Lions to a series victory.

The oldest surviving victorious Lions captain is McBride, who is 85 years old and a leader of the immortals of 1974 in South Africa.

Just four people made up that happy band before the weekend, with Finlay Calder (1989 in Australia), Martin Johnson (1997 in South Africa), and Sam Warburton (2013 in Australia). There are now five.

What message do you want to send to Maro? McBride asserts. “Well done, son,” I would say. Bravo. They’ve won a series in the southern hemisphere, which is never simple.

On Saturday morning, I watched it at home. I couldn’t possibly enjoy listening to all the experts’ opinions and the garbage in the club.

“The game was fantastic,” he said. The best image I’ve had in a very long time. I have a hard time understanding modern rugby. Line-outs are no longer what I understand. Nobody knows what’s going on, so I have no idea why they bother doing scrums.

When I was captain, we had 32 players, a coach, and a manager. The backroom staff currently employs more than 32 people. 22 matches were played. Although everything is different, I’d assume that the feeling of victory has not significantly changed.

Generations divide them, but each generation has a unique way of engrossing them. McBride, an Ulster protestant, and an Irish captain who fought in the trenches while others tried to blow them up, played through the Troubles.

Itoje’s admiration for him comes in a different form: through his efforts to provide a quality education to children from Nigeria, the country of his parents’ birth. Through his Pearl Fund, he is changing the lives of young orphans, fatherless, and poverty-stricken youth.

McBride is aware of the impact Itoje would have had on Saturday night, but he is unaware of its significance. When asked about the select band of captains he’s now joined, Itoje replies, “I’m very grateful and it’s obviously a tremendous honor to be in such esteemed company.”

“These occasions and these tours are going to be the experiences I look back on with a lot of nostalgia,” said the woman.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I found a rugby player from the United Kingdom who said they didn’t want to play for Lion.” Each player values it dearly in their hearts. The players want this for as long as rugby is being played, and they will do it for the rest of their lives.

You can’t shoot at it too much, they say. No one tour is ever guaranteed for the next. It has a special quality. You might never have another opportunity if you don’t miss one.

It’s been said before, but it shouldn’t really work in many ways. You have four distinct societies, four distinct ideologies, and various game-playing and analytical philosophies.

Itoje is currently considered to be one of the greats. When the Lions take on the Wallabies in Sydney’s final dance on Saturday, he will have played in eight straight Lions Tests (seven as a starter).

His captaincy is quiet and almost sage. He frequently makes arrangements with others to deliver the fire and brimstone in the dressing room. He once said that he was “deeply thoughtful, prone to overthinking, actually,” which is part of what makes him interesting.

He plays rugby, is a Christian, and is a fan of politics because he “speaks to my soul” and is a strong advocate for anti-racism. When questioned about the most interesting message he’s received since the series wrapped up last weekend, he claims it came from foreign secretary David Lammy.

Itoje is a lock who wreaks havoc with his will, charisma, and strategic acumen. His durability is incredible. He has played every game of Six Nations history for six years.

He has gone the distance in 37 of his last 38 games for England and the Lions. He speaks like a hard man. A player who joined rugby late and later became captain, but who has made an important impact on the game and who is only 30 years old, to make that mark even bigger.

Which will he keep in mind during this trip: the people or the rugby? It’s difficult to tell apart, he said. In the end, it will be the people, according to Itoje. “The rugby makes it sweeter.

One more step must be taken, turning 2-0 into 3-0, which would mark the Lions’ first consecutive Test victories on the road since McBride’s Lions of 1974.

Itoje remarked, “We want to be a part of something very special. What would be an absolute dream to go out there and perform to the level we believe we can do in order to win the third game is undoubtedly very special, but winning a Lions Test series is one of the most extraordinary things.

Although the first two games were fantastic because we won both games, there is still a sense that we haven’t arranged things in a way that we are confident in. We want to chase down the performance we’ve been looking for, which is what makes us tick.

It would be the first unbeaten tour in Australia since 1974, and it would also be the first time since. McBride can’t help but pull you up when you give him this potent piece of history. Unbeaten ? They were beaten against the Pumas in Dublin, weren’t they? That was included in the tour, wasn’t it?

The great man is still guarding his boys and their place in history more than 50 years later. Always a warrior, once one. Itoje has since enrolled in that program.

Itoje remarked about the need to win the series 3-0 after saying, “I think we owe it to ourselves.