England’s Maro Itoje named British and Irish Lions captain | Breaking News & Latest South Africa Updates

England’s Maro Itoje named British and Irish Lions captain — England's Maro Itoje will captain the British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia after being appointed by head coach Andy Farrell on Thursday....

England's Maro Itoje will captain the British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia after being appointed by head coach Andy Farrell on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Saracens lock becomes the first Black player to captain the Lions and only the third Englishman in 89 years to be appointed leader of the touring side.

One of the few sure Test starters, Itoje will be embarking on his third Lions tour after being selected as the youngest player in New Zealand in 2017 and playing a standout role in South Africa in 2021.

Appointed England captain in place of Jamie George in January, Itoje led his country to second place in this year's Six Nations Championship with four wins in a row.

The Lions have a game against Argentina in Dublin on June 20. They will have five tour games before the first Test in Brisbane on July 19. The second and third tests are on July 26 and August 2.

Henry Pollock has been named in the British and Irish Lions squad 👏The crowd enjoyed that one 😅pic.twitter.com/Llsb4tVJFC

The first Englishman to lead the Lions since Martin Johnson 24 years ago, and only the second in the professional era, the London-born son of Nigerian parents was the obvious choice after Ireland captain Caelan Doris suffered a shoulder injury.

Itoje showed he was captain material from an early age, leading the England Under-20s to Junior World Cup triumph in 2014, though he became Saracens captain only this season.

“He has thrived on the England captaincy. He played really well in the Six Nations, but he has played even better for us since then,” Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall told the Guardian this week.

“Maro has absolutely thrived on all of that leadership,” he added. “Maro is very much a leader by what he does and how consistent he is.”

The extraordinary 20-year-old England flanker Henry Pollock was included having done enough to force his way into the hyper-competitive back-row mix.

Forwards:Tadhg Beirne (Munster Rugby/Ireland) Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers/England) Jack Conan (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks/England) Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors/ Scotland) Tom Curry (Sale Sharks/England) Ben Earl (Saracens/England) Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors/Scotland) Tadhg Furlong (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears/England) Maro Itoje (Saracens/England) — Captain Ronan Kelleher (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Joe McCarthy (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Jac Morgan (Ospreys/Wales) Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints/England) Andrew Porter (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) James Ryan (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby/Scotland) Dan Sheehan (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Will Stuart (Bath Rugby/England) Josh van der Flier (Leinster Rugby/Ireland)

Backs:Bundee Aki (Connacht Rugby/Ireland) Elliot Daly (Saracens/England) Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints/England) Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Mack Hansen (Connacht Rugby/Ireland) Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors/Scotland) Hugo Keenan (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Blair Kinghorn (Toulouse/Scotland) James Lowe (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints/England) Garry Ringrose (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Finn Russell (Bath Rugby/Scotland) Fin Smith (Northampton Saints/England) Marcus Smith (Harlequins/ England) Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors/Scotland) Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby/Scotland) Tomos Williams (Gloucester Rugby/Wales)

Reuters