Andy Farrell cannot ignore Maro Itoje who will electrify the Lions as captain

In a week of borderline choices and heartbreaking telephone calls, Andy Farrell has just been handed the easiest decision of all. For however chastening the news of Caelan Doris’s imminent shoulder surgery might be, it does at least bring a precious clarity, heightening the urgency for Maro Itoje to be named captain of the British and Irish Lions. If his case was not compelling enough given how he has assumed the mantle with England, winning four straight Six Nations matches just as Doris’s Ireland slumped, his rival’s misfortune has simplified the equation beyond dispute. Itoje is not merely the outstanding candidate to lead in Australia, but the only one.