Maro Itoje with his cousin Andre Harriman-Annous who plays for Arsenal Under-18s. Picture: Instagram
In Itoje’s defence he was 14 years old at the time. His father, Efe, is an Arsenal fan and passed that on to his son. Itoje still supports the club, singling out the gold Sega shirt and the final Highbury maroon kit as two favourites. He recently attended a game at the Emirates alongside his Saracens teammate Andy Onyeama-Christie to present Bukayo Saka with Arsenal’s player-of-the-month award for November.
“I’m still a fan now, but Arsenal broke my heart when I was 14. So I promised myself that I wouldn’t allow them to break my heart again,” he says, with a wide smile. “I kind of took a step back, but I still love the club.”
The emotional hammer blow came during a midweek Champions League fixture; April 2008, Arsenal travelling to Liverpool for the second leg of their quarter-final, the score tied at 1-1 after the first tie at the Emirates. Liverpool had taken a 2-1 lead when with six minutes of normal time remaining, Theo Walcott picked up the ball deep in Arsenal’s half.
“He dribbled pretty much past the whole team to set up Emmanuel Adebayor. That was to go through on away goals,” Itoje recalls. “And then Liverpool came back and scored twice in the final minutes,” through a Steven Gerrard penalty followed by Ryan Babel in injury-time, winning 4-2 and 5-3 on aggregate.
“As I was watching it, a tear started to trickle down my face and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, why am I crying’.
“So I promised myself that I would never cry because of Arsenal again.”
Itoje might end up breaking that vow in the future, although for a good reason. His cousin, Andre Harriman-Annous, is a winger for Arsenal’s U-18sn.
“We’re hoping that he goes the whole way,” adds Itoje. “Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get down there to see him play because our schedule is quite tough, but I’ve seen him practise and train.”
Festive sporting traditions when Itoje was growing up were limited to getting to grips with the latest FIFA game with his older brother, Jeremy, but since his rugby career took off almost a decade ago his parents have gradually become more invested.
“I actually think they watch more rugby than me,” he laughs. “I went to the house on the Sunday after the Bulls game and they had the rugby sevens on.”
Saracens will train early on Christmas Eve and late on St Stephen’s Day, freeing up a window for Itoje “to enjoy myself on Christmas without going crazy”. He has had time to reflect on England’s autumn, which featured three tight defeats to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa before a win over Japan which looked nice but meant little given the poor quality of the opposition. Itoje feels upbeat about the long-term future for this side, despite five wins in 12 Tests this year.
“Definitely gutted with how \[those defeats\] went. Most people can see there’s a foundation there of a very good team,” Itoje notes.
“We need to execute when the pressure comes on in the dying moments of the game, but I’m extremely optimistic about the future, about where the team is going and what we can do.”
Breaking up the Christmas routine by getting outside to pass a ball around with family is something he encourages, while Saracens should be involved in a couple of crackers against Northampton tomorrow and at Bath on December 28.
“They can come down to the StoneX and watch a good team play rugby, and if not they can enjoy it on the TV with loved ones,” Itoje adds. Just don’t ask him for the Arsenal score,