.png)
4 hours ago
1
Ellis Genge has something to get off his chest. After a few pleasantries – his time off at the start of the week was a “nightmare” because his son has chicken pox - he soon finds his stride. The England prop cannot understand the negative reaction to last weekend’s one-point victory in the Calcutta Cup. England’s first win over Scotland in five years, and their second in a row in this year’s Six Nations, ensured they retain an outside chance of winning the title.
“It is difficult as a player to digest the fact that people were disappointed that we just won the Calcutta Cup back after five years,” laments Genge. “We won the game and people are still upset about it. It blew my mind to be honest. Ex-players, recently retired and long retired, and people from years and years ago, I just can’t believe how out of touch they are, the spiel that I’m reading from people saying how off it we are. We won two games on the bounce and you’re upset about it, I don’t get it. Let’s not be naive, you can feel that people were booing when we were playing. It’s the feeling at the moment, for whatever reason, it is the way it is.”
He did not specify but of those ex-players to speak out, Will Greenwood and Ben Youngs have not been particularly glowing while Will Carling described the victory over Scotland as “very ugly”. Genge is only too aware that England rode their luck to beat France before a 16-15 over Scotland which was anything but easy on the eye but his point is that Steve Borthwick’s side have twice squeezed over the line after a sustained period of failing to do so. Of England’s last 19 matches, 15 have been settled by a score or less but they went into the France match having lost their last seven matches to tier one opposition. They might have played more expansively – Genge references the 42-37 defeat by Australia – but the thrust of his argument is that England have found a knack of winning narrowly, yet still they are criticised.
“It’s still sort of like... ‘England only won by a point’, whereas in the last 18 months, every time we’ve lost by a point, we’ve been slandered, and on the weekend we win by a point and it’s the same old story,” says Genge. “So I don’t know, it feels like we can’t win, to be honest. That’s how I feel. It’s like, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. We lost to Australia, everyone was like, “brilliant, look how they move the ball”. But we lost. So who gives a fuck? You lost the game. Do you want to be part of a team that wins every single game by one point? Or would you rather be part of a team that loses every single week, 40 points to 39? I know what type of team I want to be in.
“I understand from a fans’ perspective; what they want to see. They want to see us coming through with back-door off-loads and no-look chip-and-chase. But it don’t win Test matches. We won the game. The maddest thing about it is if Finn [Russell] gets that kick at the end I can imagine this would be a very different feeling now. And the fans, I don’t know how they’d feel, but it’s mental. Pitchforks would be out.”
Genge is at pains to say that he values the support of England fans – “I go round clapping them after every game. I love them” – but believes there needs to be a better understanding of what it takes to win Test matches. He cites South Africa’s World Cup semi-final win over England – also 16-15 – and points out how the Springboks were not pilloried for their performance that day.
“I want people to understand I know we are not playing the most loose rugby,” he adds. “I don’t want credit for playing the most loose rugby, I want credit for winning, that is what we are in, we are in a results business, it is black, it is white, you either win or you lose or you draw. But when we win, to have a bitter taste in our mouth is confusing. After four years of trauma to win something back and almost have a negative feel about it was upsetting for me. This is a professional game and you have to move on.”
Is it specific to England? Other nations would no doubt say they can find themselves in a similar no-win situation but as the assistant coach Kevin Sinfield points out, it is something their footballing counterparts are all too used to. “Yeah it is [weird],” says Sinfield. “And more so, with being English. Absolutely. Look at the England football team and the amount of stick they get, when they are winning games. They can’t play or won’t play like Barcelona. If you are asking me my standpoint, I am here to win. Of course utopia is we win and we win by 50 points and we play free-flowing rugby and we throw the ball everywhere. But the reality is that ain’t going to happen.”
after newsletter promotion
The Twickenham faithful has always been difficult to please but perhaps expectations have been distorted by the try-fests that we so often see in the Premiership. “Being able to box clever and being able to fight on the inside and the out, that is a strength of ours; being able to adapt,” adds Genge. “Sometimes the game is ugly and in the last three games we haven’t thrown the ball about and done what the fans want to see every week, but that is Test rugby. If you want to see that, come to Ashton Gate. If you want to see some mental rugby, that’s where you find it. In our last two games we beat France at home and we beat Scotland, but apparently France should have beat us by 20 and Scotland should have beat us as well. I am confused.”
In many ways, against that backdrop, Italy are not the ideal opponents next up a week on Sunday. England have never lost to Italy and the expectation to win, and win well, is always there against the Azzurri. “I totally agree but maybe four years ago people would have said that,” said Genge. “But I think over the last period of time, they have been brilliant. They beat Wales in Wales. They took a few scalps. So I don’t think they’re a team that people think is a guaranteed win any more.
“Look at Wales on the weekend, everyone was buzzing about how they played against Ireland and they lost by, what, nine points? No one was slamming Wales were they? But we won by a point and suddenly the headlines were negative for us. It’s a weird spot. I think the world is in a weird place, so it doesn’t surprise me.”
