Ellis Genge: ‘I can relate to worried fans… I feel the same about Bristol Rovers’
The Bristol front-rower ranks among the many straightest speaking of England stars and pulled again the curtain on Steve Borthwick’s Test squad in a bid to allay any lingering fan doubts.
Genge insisted England by no means misplaced any ounce of perception, not even throughout three damaging defeats in 4 warm-up Tests final month.
If Saturday’s 27-10 victory over Argentina in Marseille vindicated that steely focus, Genge insisted that assertion win is simply the beginning for a dialled-in England.
“I know it’s hard from the outside — I support Bristol Rovers, so I know how it feels when you’re not getting results,” mentioned Genge. “When that happens, it’s always, ‘This is the worst ever, everything has to change!’ [but] all you can do is double-down.”
England’s first-ever loss to Fiji closed a depressing August build-up to the Rugby World Cup in France, however Genge insisted he has by no means doubted England’s potential to peak on the proper time.
“We believe — there was not one second in the last few weeks that I’ve thought, ‘We’re in trouble here’, I honestly haven’t,” mentioned Genge. “I know that’s hard to believe, but I haven’t felt like that at all. I’m not saying we’ve cracked it by any sense, but it’s a step in the right direction.
“We’ve been chipping away, doing our graft and we’re confident. We’ve been doing the work, so we can be confident. I’ve been there before. When you’re in a team 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three months, you know where you are and where you are going.”
England face Japan in Nice on Sunday buoyed for a promising Pool D marketing campaign, however cautious of the challenges forward.
“It’s easy to say now, ‘We’ve been building towards this’. We’ve been trying to win, but we didn’t change anything,” mentioned Genge.
“We did exactly the same as we have been doing, and all of a sudden everyone thinks we’ve cracked it. That’s just sport.”