Maro Itoje has issued a battle call to his England team-mates. (Image: Getty)
Maro Itoje has urged to mark his first game as captain at Twickenham on Saturday by flexing their muscles against a massive French side.
Antoine Dupont’s outfit will arrive boasting a heavyweight pack containing monsters like prop Uini Atonio and lock Emmanuel Meafou who have a combined weight of around 300kg.
England are determined to fight fire with fire against the French forwards aiming to starve their rock star backs, led by Dupont and Damian Penaud of possession.
Do that and they have half a chance of ending a depressing run of seven straight defeats against the leading nations and a string of near-misses.
And Itoje, who took over as captain from Jamie George last month, insists England have to stand toe-to-toe with the visitors who battered Wales 43-0 in last Friday’s Six Nations opener.
The 30-year-old said: “The non-negotiable, first and foremost, is the physicality, you need to make sure you’re physical, that you’re winning that gain line because they are a team that if you allow them to do that then they become difficult. We want to be aggressive as a team, getting off the line and hitting them and stopping them in their tracks. That’s our mindset.
“They’re a big, heavy team, they maul around some of their big boys but from my point of view we need to get stuck into that.
“It is a big game, it is big occasion and we want to win. The team wants to move forward, the team wants to win and to be the team we want to be, these are the games we have to win.”
Maro Itoje speaking during England training. (Image: Getty)
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New fly-half Fin Smith can expect plenty of heavy traffic down his channel after being promoted to start.
But the 22-year-old, who weighs in at just 87kg, has proved he can punch above his weight in the Premiership this season.
Head coach Steve Borthwick said: “You could talk a lot about Fin’s distribution skills, which are excellent. His kicking game is really very, very accurate. Early this season, we had Fin at 30 tackles in a game for Northampton. It tells you a lot about the personality – he’s tough, he’s brave.
“When players see a fly-half willing to defend like that, they have immense respect for him. So we can talk all about those different skill sets, which he certainly has, he’s an elite player, but he’s also a very tough, brave young man.”
And Itoje has no worries about Smith being handed the keys to No.10 after playing against him for Saracens in the league.
Itoje added: “He’s a cool, calm, collected sort of player. He makes a lot of good decisions. As a 10, you want to force them to make poor decisions and he is quite tricky to do that against because he often finds the right pass or makes the right decision in the kicking game. When I listen to him speak I’m surprised that he is only 22. He’s ready and I’m excited to see him go.”