64 Wednesday February 23 2022 | the timesSportGuinness Six Nations
T
here is much about Ellis
Genge that does exactly
what it says on the tin.
Watch him with ball in
hand, building up a furious
head of steam to smash his way
through any number of would-be
tacklers, and you see the traits that
have long marked him out as a special
talent, with a visceral relish for the
fray that is thrilling to spectators and
team-mates — and rather less so if
you happen to be standing in his way.
His work around the field, equally,
is marked by a muscular athleticism
that is rare in a loose-head prop, his
raw power in the scrummage
increasingly effective as he grows into
the rounded player who has become
England’s first choice in the No 1 shirt.
But we have also seen so much
more of Genge, 27, in recent weeks,
revealing the elements that are not
quite so well advertised. During
England’s victory over Italy in Rome,
there was that beautifully deft long
pass, fully 20 metres off his left hand,
to send Jamie George in for a try, a
piece of distribution of which Marcus
Smith would have been proud.
A few minutes later Genge showed
quick wits to summon medics and roll
Sebastian Negri on to his side when
the Italy lock had been laid out in a
collision. As he continues to develop,
Genge is revealing qualities that some
suspected he did not possess.
But leadership? Few considered
him captaincy material. Eyebrows
were raised in the summer when
Eddie Jones, the England head coach,
made Genge vice-captain against the
United States and Canada and they
were raised again when he was
chosen this season as Leicester Tigers’new captain. Significantly, though,
those eyebrows do not belong to
people who work with Genge each
day, who see at close quarters the way
he goes about his work.
The vice-captaincy of England was
not simply a token gesture for the
summer internationals — it has
remained with him ever since, and he
will fill the role against Wales again
on Saturday. He has become a key
figure in England’s new leadership
group and, in the process, has this
season overtaken Joe Marler and
Mako Vunipola to become England’s
starting loose-head prop.
At Leicester, he has spearheaded a
side who have dominated the
Gallagher Premiership this season,
and it is instructive to hear the three
reasons why Steve Borthwick, the
club’s head coach, picked out Genge
as his new leader.
“First, he’s a great player, he sets an
example for other players to follow,”
Borthwick said. “Second, he
understands what people’s strengths
are. There are people he plays with
who understand the game tactically,
in defence, attack and set-piece areas,
and Ellis brings their strengths to the
fore. Third, he’s brilliant with other
players. It doesn’t matter wherethey’re from, how old they are, what
their backgrounds are, what positions
they play, Ellis brings people together.
They coalesce around him; he’s a real
cohesive force.”
There are other qualities needed in
a captain, of course, not least the
requirement to make clear-
headed decisions in the heat
of battle. This is one area
where an outsider’s view
of Genge, as a
confrontational and
highly abrasive on-field
character, who plays
the game on the edge,
may prompt questions
about his suitability to
lead. Not many props are
made captains in the modern
game, but captaincy is not new to
Genge, even if his formative
experiences of leadership came before
his switch to the front row, when he
was a No 8 at Hartpury College.
He had moved to Hartpury, half an
hour’s drive from his home in Bristol,
at the age of 16, encouraged by his
parents to escape the negative
influences that had caused him to
stray into trouble with the police. “I
was quite an aggressive kid, I had
some serious issues,” Genge has said.diamond, there were some people
questioning whether it was right for
him to lead the side,” Martinovic said.
“There is a misconception that he
lacked discipline, that he was always
getting into scrapes and scraps. He
plays the game hard, but in two years
with us, I think he got one yellow
card.” Why the misconceptions? “He’s
a working-class boy playing a veryHow rough diamond Genge
became a leader for Jones
His father had encouraged him to
play rugby and his natural aptitude
for the game soon became apparent.
He started out with Old
Redcliffians and earned a place at
Bristol’s junior academy, where his
uncompromising approach is recalled
by his peers. “I remember [age 14-15],
we had one session playing touch
rugby and [practising] skills,” Joe
Joyce, the Bristol Bears lock, said.
“You could tell he wasn’t there for the
touch. He wanted to run into
someone. It was the same a few years
later when we were getting into the
seniors. In his first game he ran over
in the corner and could have just
touched the ball down to score, but he
saw another defender, ran over
another ten metres to flatten him and
put the ball down by the posts.”
The same elemental force earned
him a place on the renowned rugby
programme at Hartpury and it was in
his second year that Alan Martinovic,
the college’s director of rugby,
recognised that there were aspects of
Genge’s character that could lend
themselves to leadership.
“To keep him moving forward,
he needed to take on that
responsibility,” Martinovic
said. “My favourite quote
on what leadership is
about was from Bobby
Kennedy: ‘To inspire
others to exercise their
best qualities.’ You can
inspire in all sorts of
ways and Ellis was an
inspiration because of the
way he played, the way he
would completely refuse to give
in, no matter the circumstances.
“We played Saracens [academy]
three times that year and each time
they came off wondering how they’d
lost, because they outplayed us at
times, but so much of that was down
to Ellis and his refusal to lose. The
other lads would have followed him
to the ends of the earth.”
Even then, there had been surprise
expressed when Genge was chosen as
captain. “Because he’s a bit of a roughGrowth from bad boy
to England vice-captain
is no surprise to those
who know him best,
reports John Westerby
Genge is treated to a rendition of “Happy Birthday” by his England team-matesEngland
v Wales
Saturday, 4.45pm
Twickenham
TV: ITV
Radio: BBC 5 LiveGenge has
become a key
figure within the
leadership group