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'Bollocks': What Ellis Genge said in 2020 about loyalty in rugby
By Liam Heagney
Wednesday’s shock announcement that England loosehead Ellis Genge will quit Leicester at the end of the 2021/22 season for a now confirmed return to his hometown Bristol has lit up social media where there have been plenty of opinions from the opposite ends of the spectrum.
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Leicester boss Steve Borthwick explained in the club’s statement revealing Genge’s plan to leave that it “is a personal decision for Ellis“. Some fans have fully embraced this rationale. “That’s professional sport, good luck to him. He’s been an outstanding servant for Leicester,” read one tweet after the Genge exit revelation broke.
However, there were other posts critical of the departure. “Struggling to understand why he would want to leave such a great club and let’s face it this club has put him on the straight and narrow.”
Aside from a 59-word paragraph included at the end of the Leicester statement, Genge had been silent about his reasons to exit the Tigers, his club since his arrival there from Bristol in 2016.
The views of the Leicester prop regarding loyalty in rugby were perhaps best summed up, though, in a January 2020 interview Genge gave to House of Rugby, the show that features James Haskell and has since become The Good, The Bad and The Rugby. The 26-year-old spoke at length about how rugby is a business and that players have to look after themselves as best they can.
I Don’t understand why he was given the captaincy role if he had intentions of leaving .
— Adam Warwick (@AdamWarwick86) December 15, 2021
“It pains to see articles by I don’t know who,” he began when broaching the emotive theme of loyalty in rugby. “A good example would be when Jonny (May) left Gloucester, he found a clause in his contract that he manipulated to leave Gloucester and everyone was, ‘We looked after him in his academy years here’. F*** off. It’s a work environment. If you want to leave Tesco and go to Asda, I’m sure your manager ain’t screaming at you, ‘You can’t f***in do that? That is our direct competitor, they’re two roads up’.
“They ain’t going to say that. No one has got a problem with that and you sort of forget that sport now, especially rugby even more so because the money has gone up, it’s a business. You see about all the salary cap stuff, it’s a business. If people ain’t got room for you in their cap… if they ain’t got money for someone they are going to get rid of them no matter if they have been there eight years or nine.”
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At that time nearly two years ago, the big news in the game in England was the Saracens salary cap controversy which ultimately resulted in their automatic relegation from the Premiership. Before that automatic drop had been confirmed, it had emerged that Liam Williams would be leaving for the Scarlets as the London club strove to try and get its cap in order.
“That is what I am saying (about no loyalty) and he was their best thing since sliced bread,” continued Genge. “He was unreal, don’t get me wrong, but he was their [Saracens’] answer and now you have to find a different answer and that is fine for clubs to do that but when a player does that there is uproar. And that is why I am saying it is bollocks.
“I am not saying there is no loyalty left in rugby. Maybe I said it but that is not what I mean, what I am saying is it is bollocks to think that just because you have been somewhere for ten years that you are going to get very well looked after. To be fair to Leicester I do think they do look after players very well post finishing if you have been there a long time.
“At the same time there are people in the game who absolutely milk it and don’t give anything to a club and I do think that should be pushed out as well, but you have got to have a balance. You can’t expect an arm and a leg from a player and then give them f*** all when they retire.
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“That is what I say to people when I have got fans peppering me when we were losing at Leicester… I have literally got fans saying that we don’t care. What the f*** are you on about? I got up here at seven o’clock for seven months, whatever it was, to go in and do rehab and wait three hours to do weights so all the boys who were playing could come and do weights.
“You’re sat there, you are twiddling your thumbs, you are losing your mind. Everything that you give psychologically and all the body parts that go missing, do you know what I mean? Everyone seems to forget that as soon you finish playing. It’s ‘he jumped ship’. You have got to look after yourself and that is instinct… you’ve got to look after yourself.”
Already seeing people saying loyalty in rugby is "dead" because Ellis Genge is leaving Leicester, if only there's a video where Genge himself talks about loyalty in rugby…
Credit: @GoodBadRugby pic.twitter.com/3F1AgyOwYD
— Andrew Forde (@andrewfrugby) December 15, 2021
Wow!
Genge set to leave Leicester the end of the season. After being named club captain this season I would’ve put good money on him staying.
Going to be a lot of clubs after his signature… #GallagherPrem #LeicesterTigers https://t.co/N3ESudeBaV
— Tight Five Rugby (@TightFive_Rugby) December 15, 2021
Looks like Ellis Genge is off to Bristol for family reasons and Ford off to Sale for family reasons. Fully respect those decisions.
Two incredible players who will leave a big hole, gutted
— Tigers Fans (@TigersLeicester) December 15, 2021
Loads of knuckles losing their shit over Genge changing jobs. Calm down, you planks.
— Ben Wightman (@BTWightman) December 15, 2021
Ellis Genge is hugely underrated I feel, he is the real deal, that’s big praise because he deserves it. Tigers going to miss him but that’s professional sport, good luck to him-he’s been an outstanding servant for Leicester #EllisGenge
— Graeme Peacock (@graemepeacock05) December 15, 2021
'Struggling to understand why he would want to leave such a great club and let’s face it this club has put him on the straight and narrow'https://t.co/2v7mWC4Uu9
— Mercury Tigers (@tigerslive) December 15, 2021
…and I get that because not so long ago Tigers treated players as commodities. It is however easy to forget the Youngs, Cole, Wells of the squad. Smith behind the scenes. These guys have remained local because they are (relatively) local…as Ford and Genge return local…
— Oxford Cleaver ???? (@oxfordcleaver) December 15, 2021
If the rumours on Genge to bears are true. As much as I love the bloke and think he's a top quality player, that's a terrible bit of business.. starting 1 and 3 away for a large chunk of the season, both of whom will be eating into the salary cap. Weirdly hope it's not true.
— Joe (@Joe67667987) December 16, 2021
All for opinions but, cheese and ham crackers. There isn't a club in the land that wouldn't miss Genge.
When Sarries went down you lot were rooted to the bottom of the league. He put the club on his back. Kept things respectable.— Tony Campbell (@CampbellATony) December 15, 2021
https://twitter.com/James_Hoggarth/status/1471193614722211843
The more a sport becomes like a regular business, there will always be a change in loyalty. I think Genge's working class background make it difficult and perhaps unreasonable. If Rugby is a sport, it's not really a business. If it's a business, it is less about sport. The Premiership is starting to resemble the Top 14. Maybe it's time to take the line about, "Soccer is a gentleman's game played by ruffians; Rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen and make that aspirational.