he stepped up to skipper saracens this season in the wake of owen farrell's departure to france — andith more on that, and the rest of the squad announcement, here's our rugby union correspondent chris jones. the big news from here is england have a new captain, maro itoje replacing jamie george in the role. george led england through 2024 but at the age of 3a and with pressure for his place from players, he has moved in a different direction. maro itoje tipped as england's captain for ages, he led the under 20s to a junior world championship in 2014, a mainstay of the side since 2016, barely missing a game, has barely a second of action. for some reason he had not been the permanent england skipper, but at the age of 30, he is now the captain, at his club saracens, the feeling is now it is time. there always a number of factors to consider in these decisions, in really good team i have been involved in you have a number of excellent leaders and we are developing that within the squad. maro itoje is a guy who is a world—class player. an incredible professional, and i feel we are devel