Ellis Genge wants to set the record straight. The Leicester and England prop does not care for statistics but one in particular has caught his eye. Genge often treads the line between confrontational and combustible – “He’s more bark than bite,” said his head coach, Matt O’Connor, recently – but the 23-year-old feels his reputation for losing his temper on the field is unjustified.
“I’ve given away one penalty for ill-discipline all season and that was last weekend,” he says. “For some reason I’m carrying around this dark cloud that means I’m Mr Angry but if you’re a prop and you haven’t got a bit of a temper you’re playing the wrong position. Everyone thinks I am a raving lunatic but it is not the case at all. It is just how I play – I am not frustrated in any way, shape or form. I just enjoy doing what I do.”
Genge’s difficult upbringing on the West Knowle estate in Bristol is well documented. He was a latecomer to rugby – taking up the sport as a means to channel his aggression – and by his own admission, his rapid emergence into the Leicester first team last season meant for a steep learning curve. “I was a lot angrier when I was 18 than I am now. Now it’s channelled more so into rugby than in everyday life. I’ve seen a lot of sports psychologists, done a bit of therapy, stuff like that,” he says. “Everyone has a different story to tell and you have just got to work it out yourself, it’s part of the process of growing up. Luckily, I’ve done quite a lot of that, quite quickly.”
Leicester and England are thankful that he has. Genge has recently recovered from a shoulder injury – a torn labrum that meant three months out – but before and after that he has been one of the Tigers’ best performers. He carries with unbridled aggression – he was described as a “baby rhino with a dart up its backside” earlier this season – but in the two matches since his return from injury it is his scrummaging that has stood out. In his comeback match against Wasps last month, Genge’s emergence from the bench turned the game in Leicester’s favour and he marmalised Bath’s Shaun Knight at Twickenham last Saturday. “With scrums I used to get built up too much around frustration and wound up so that I forgot about set-up and technique,” he says. “I’ve dialled that down now so when I’m in the scrum I can apply myself.”
Genge’s improvement at the scrum is down to a number of factors. He was a late convert to the front row, having previously played No 8, and he played through the pain of his injury, including his most recent England appearance against Samoa in November, before finally going under the knife. When fit and firing though, O’Connor believes Genge is the prototype for modern props and, while he missed the Six Nations, he seems a certainty for the summer tour of South Africa irrespective of England’s riches at loosehead.
“I’m feeling very strong. I am like a bull, the rehab was quite a long and daunting process because I have never had a long-term injury,” says Genge. “But everyone plays international rugby when they’re hurt.
“I was reassured by all the medical teams that playing with it is fine. Everyone plays with labrum tears – not usually front-rowers, mostly backs and flankers, so it was a bit more painful, but it was bearable. Every game I played I tore it a bit more and a bit more and [eventually] I thought: ‘I can’t play like this.’”
Genge clearly enjoys being typecast as the hard man. Asked if he relishes confrontation he fixes his stare before simply replying with “I love it” so his passion of fine-dining may seem incongruous. It does, however, extend to an appearance as a guest judge in a rugby-themed episode of Masterchef. “They needed my culinary expertise,” he says. “Being a prop I’m allowed to eat a lot of food. I love the show as well, my agent knew that, the opportunity arose and I got the chance to go on there and pretend I knew what I was talking about.”
He does not pretend to when it comes to the east Midlands rivalry with Northampton – who visit Welford Road on Saturday – but with Leicester closing on their perennial play-off place, Genge is relishing the end-of-season run-in. “I’m not a Leicester lad but I feel like I’ve been adopted by the fans, which is lovely,” he says. “I like the vibe I get from the boys and I feed off that but it’s not my city so I can’t preach on that too much.
“I said that from the day dot, even when we were in the dark stages [of the season], I thought that we’d make top four and that we’d win the Premiership and I stand by that.”
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