Ellis Genge: ‘Not everyone’s going to like you – you’ve just got to be yourself’

Certain perceptions can be hard to shake. If Ellis Genge had a quid for every time he has been called a hothead or a potential liability on social media he could retire to his own tropical island. “People on social media still throw out comments about things they’ve seen five years ago,” murmurs the Leicester and England prop. “Everyone says: ‘He’s got such a bad track record.’ I don’t know if it’s my problem that people are still that blind and don’t do their due diligence.”

On the eve of the Six Nations, with England preparing to enter the Caledonian cauldron of Murrayfield, it is easy to understand his mild frustration. The other day, even before Owen Farrell’s latest injury setback, none other than Sir Clive Woodward was tipping Genge to lead England into the 2022 championship. Two years ago, in the corresponding fixture, the latter also delivered the late winning try which clinched a narrow visiting Calcutta Cup success.

With his front-row colleague Joe Marler in Covid isolation in recent days, it could yet be that the 26-year-old loosehead again finds himself in the eye of the storm. He should be a genuine working class hero: the boy from the tough side of Bristol who has transformed himself into a follow-me leader for club and country and a doting father. Instead he finds himself battling the prejudices of those still stubbornly judging a book by its occasionally rough-arsed cover. “I appreciate that people probably think there’s still a hot streak there,” he says. Knowing pause. “They can have a crack if they want.”

Boom-boom. As his well-publicised flare-up and yellow card at Wasps this month demonstrated, no-one is entirely perfect. Controlled aggression can be the finest of lines. That said, there is much more