PLUMB TO SCRUM Tigers star Ellis Genge could have been fixing U-bends with his dad.. now the Paul Scholes-loving prop is hoping to help flush away Racing

PROP star Ellis Genge has revealed how rugby spared him from going round the U-bend.

The Leicester and England ace is heading for the top after a switch from back row to front paid off handsomely.

Before that he was a footballplaying goalkeeper who looked destined to follow his dad into the plumbing trade.

“I never really watched rugby growing up, I was more into football,” said Genge, who starts for Tigers today in Paris against a Racing 92 team missing injured legend Dan Carter (right).

“Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what Carter has done, he is the David Beckham of rugby. He is a Wilko.

“But for me it was never a childhood dream to meet Dan Carter.

“I love Paul Scholes. He’s the boy! If I met him I might be starstruck.” His reason for idolising Scholes (below) – “because he is the only ginger bloke who ever cracked it” – is bizarre and not altogether accurate.

But there can be no dispute that changing to rugby has transformed the 22-year-old Bristolian.

“I was a keeper and it’s quite individual when you’re in goal,” he explained. “I was quite a temperamental kid, a lot of my mates didn’t understand why I was angry all the time.

“I found rugby a good way to suppress emotion. When I started playing it I started making a lot of friends. The bond in rugby is different to football. I have friends all around the world now.” Leicester boss Matt O’Connor describes Genge as a “rough diamond”. Predecessor Richard Cockerill would presumably agree.

The story goes that Cockerill once challenged him to a

fight in training only for Genge to reply: “Fine, but who will coach the team in the afternoon?” Cockerill probably asked for that given he had once told Genge he would rather pull him out of a fight than push him into one. That hard edge remains but the hothead has cooled and Leicester are reaping the rewards. Asked how he would react now to an opponent trying to goad him, Genge replied: “It doesn’t bother me, mate. I have had worse down the off-licence.” He added: “You do a lot of growing up between the ages of 19 and 21 and maybe I filled that gap with ferocity and emotion instead of doing my job. “Rugby is a confrontational sport and I’m still aggressive. I don’t need to calm down, it’s just the stupid stuff off the ball I have to try and eradicate. “Matt wants me to do what I’m good at. To do that I can’t be frothing at the mouth.”