English prop hits out at ‘private school bias’

An England test prop says English rugby’s ‘‘private school mould’’ is stopping the sport from progressing.

Leicester Tigers frontrower Ellis Genge – who grew up on a Bristol housing estate – has said he has experienced a bias against players from working class backgrounds.

‘‘It’s something I want to speak about because my whole career I’ve felt like I can’t express my opinion,’’ he told the Daily Mail.

‘‘I feel like, in rugby, people aren’t allowed to be themselves. They’re so false and that stops our sport from growing. It breaks me.’’

Genge, who has five caps, was once described by a television commentator as rampaging ‘‘like a baby rhino with a dart up its backside’’ after flattening England captain Dylan Hartley in an upfield charge.

Growing up, he got arrested for ‘‘three GBHs [grievous bodily harm] and a few things I won’t ever open the doors on’’.

‘‘I want to make it clear that I never got charged for any of that. They were just fights and scuffles that never should’ve happened. I wasn’t a thug who just went around beating people up but I spoke with my hands rather than my mouth. My uncle’s away for murder. He has been away for a long time. My grandad was in the nick. It’s not alien to me.

‘‘Some people find it weird but it’s always been part of my world. Some people in the sports world find it hard to understand, so that’s why I kept it under wraps for so long. I’m not a gangster, that’s not me and not the picture I ever wanted to paint.’’

Genge never made age-group teams between the ages of 16-18.

‘‘I feel that’s because my face didn’t fit. I’m not white middleclass – I’m working class.

‘‘I don’t want to put it down to race – I don’t think it’s about that – but I’ll put it down to culture, the way people are raised and brought up.

‘‘There’s that private-school mould in rugby. It’s stopping the game from progressing.’’

A Daily Mail graphic showed 50 per cent of England’s 36-man training squad were educated at private schools – compared with seven per cent of the general population.

‘‘Is rugby really grassroots?,’’ Genge asked. ‘‘When I was younger, I never felt comfortable sitting in the clubhouse having my chips and sausage because I just felt everyone was looking at me thinking, ‘Who the f*** is this’?’’

Genge appeared in a photo shoot, sporting a gold tooth but he said if he turned up at a rugby event wearing it, ‘‘I’d be judged straight away’’.

‘‘Because of the way I look, act, where I’m from, I get looked at differently to someone white and privately educated.’’

‘‘I’m not white middle-class – I’m working class. I don’t want to put it down to race – I don’t think it’s about that – but I’ll put it down to culture.’’ Ellis Genge, left