Guard dog Genge is adding bite to Tigers
Squeezed on to an undersized sofa in their sixbedroom home near Leicester’s Victoria Park the resident Tigers introduced their fierce new burglar deterrent.
‘Gengey’s our guard dog,’ joked No 8 Lachlan McCaffrey, flanked by housemates Peter Betham, Telusa Veainu, Jack Roberts and, the house’s latest tenant, ellis Genge.
‘We keep him down in the bedroom on the bottom floor. He doesn’t sleep much at night, so if it looks like there’s any trouble he just starts barking through the window!’
Called up for england’s tour of Australia earlier this summer after just 121 minutes of top-flight rugby, the 21-yearold loose-head (below) moved in the day he returned from down under.
In his first major interview, exclusively with Sportsmail, Genge revealed how he has tackled dyspraxia (a chronic disorder that affects co-ordination) and discussed his new lease of life since joining Leicester in February.
‘It ain’t gone too bad, has it?’ he said. ‘I never expected any of this. I needed to get away from Bristol to kick on. I was just mincing about. Chilling. This was a clean slate.’
Genge has found his mentor in Richard Cockerill, the Tigers director of rugby, who grinned when he said the youngster has found his spiritual home in the east Midlands.
‘ We’re similar blokes and he was a bit of a fireball back in the day,’ said Genge. ‘Being dyspraxic affects my concentration and hand-eye co-ordina- tion. Sometimes the odd pearler might go through my hands in training, and if Cockers sees me drifting off, he’ll just say, “Look, switch on, don’t f*** about”.
‘There are different techniques to manage dyspraxia. Some stamp their feet — it’s called grounding — look at the four corners of the stadium, or pick up grass. None of that really works for me, though. I’m still working on it.’
With the conversation flicking between local restaurants, Leicester City neighbours — the likes of Andy King and Christian Fuchs — and rapping, Genge continued: ‘It was diagnosed when I was 13.
‘My handwriting was terrible and I would daydream in class, so they sent me for tests. I didn’t tell my mates... they probably wouldn’t know what it is. I was quite good at maths and drama, though — I was picked to be one of the ugly stepsisters in Cinderella!’
As the resident entertainer, Genge produced a bottle of four- million Scoville chilli extract — so hot that it comes with a safety disclaimer. Genge was plotting how to stealthily drop it into Betham and V eainu’ s dinner. ‘ It gets quiet when ellis isn’t around,’ said McCaffrey. ‘He talks a lot of s*** but he’s quite
funny. We play a bit of backyard cricket when we’re all in, or have the odd fire-pit. Tee fancies himself as a bit of a fast bowler and Gengey hits the ball over the fence.’
But it is Genge’s fireball mentality and limb-crunching carries, rather than his comedy value or batting technique, that caught the eye of england coach eddie Jones.
TRAINING, he joked, involves running into brick walls, hence the pile of rubble in the yard. There is also talk of his troubled teenage years in Bristol, when he was arrested several times, yet was equally well known for carrying his neighbours’ shopping bags.
‘I got arrested for stupid stuff,’ he said. ‘A few fights. I’m from Knowle West. It wasn’t an easy childhood by any means. I got a few hidings, but everyone’s got a story.
‘I’m clean now, though. All that s*** is in the past. everything came together in the end. It makes you a bit harder. I ain’t scared of anything on the rugby pitch.’
defenders have grown to fear the sight of Genge’s 18st 5lb frame. He has added two stones since his days as a No 8, joking that he has ‘ two hard shoulders like the M5’.
‘I like the confrontation when someone’s trying to stop you from where you want to go,’ he explained. ‘I don’t go out with a mindset that I’m going to hurt someone, but something happens on the pitch that sparks me off. It’s a bit of a mist out there sometimes.
‘Moving to prop, you get less of a licence to run and I had to put on some weight. every Tuesday was a domino’s Tuesday. Now we get fat-tested so there’s no hiding. They have metal calipers that latch on to your calf, thigh, back, pec, arm, triceps. It’s the love handles that get me. It hurts more if you’re skinny — it doesn’t hurt me!’
Genge enjoys boxing as a means of keeping fit, pointing out the Muhammad Ali picture on the living room wall.
The building has the feel of a student house but was previously occupied by the family of All Blacks lock Brad Thorn, whose drum kit is still in situ.
‘everyone in the house is a different nationality now,’ said Genge. ‘It’s like the united Nations. We’ve got Welsh, english, Tongan, Australian and Pete, who doesn’t know if he’s Aussie or Samoan!
‘everyone else lives out in the villages. A lot of the guys here have kids or a real serious missus. We’re the singles house, basically. Lachy’s the one who gives me a little slap if I start to go off track.’
Now Genge is on the right track, and having found his feet in new surroundings, this season he is out to prove that his bite is equal to his bark.