Maro Itoje: ‘England aren’t perfect yet but we want to keep moving forward’

“W ho’s using the Dictaphone?” Maro Itoje breaks convention and asks the first question as reporters gather around him. The England forward is grinning as he slides into a chair that looks three sizes too small for his 6ft 5in frame. Before we begin he fires off another: “You going to write in shorthand?”

That is what a first Six Nations win of 2023 can do for morale. Itoje is ordinarily an upbeat character off the field whose interests lie beyond the boundary. But he cuts a particularly calm figure at the Lensbury Resort in Teddington where England have been holed up after their 31-14 victory over Italy.

“It was a step in the right direction,” Itoje says, reflecting on a win that came a week after England gave up a late lead at Twickenham to lose 29-23 to Scotland. “It was better than the week before. We’re still not perfect. As a team we just want to keep moving forward, week by week, day by day. Hopefully the accumulation of those steps will put us in the right stead.”

Steve Borthwick has sought to temper expectations as he rebuilds a team that he said “weren’t good at anything” before he inherited them. After the Italy win the new man in charge singled out Itoje as the embodiment of the incremental progress that is needed across the squad. “Wow, that is actually the first time I’m hearing of it,” Itoje says. “As a player I just want to keep on improving, keep giving a better account of myself.”

Like every England player on record, he cites his new coach’s attention to detail. Borthwick won 57 caps, captaining England in 21 Tests, and earned a reputation as a lineout general. When he turned to coaching he would look to tweak the smallest variables – the position of a lineout lifter’s thumb here, the twitch of a