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Ellis Genge: Eddie Jones and ethnic England players suffered racist abuse on 2018 tour to South Africa

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by David Rogers/ Getty Images)

Ellis Genge has claimed that Eddie Jones and some ethnic England players – including himself – were subjected to racial abuse during their 2018 trip to South Africa. Jones’ side played a three-Test series two years ago in Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Cape Town and while the Leicester prop didn’t play in those matches, he revealed there was an unsavoury moment after one of the games. 

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Speaking on 5 Live Breakfast on Tuesday, Genge explained that racism is something he tries to shield himself from but despite this cautious approach, there are still occasions when he is left vulnerable to verbal abuse.

“I don’t think BBC 5 Live needs those type of profanities on their radio at five-to-eight in the morning so I won’t go into too much stuff but it was quite tough in terms of a quite heavily white-dominated area growing up,” he said, initially recalling what it was like being reared in Bristol.

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Ellis Genge was one of the stars of the recent RugbyPass Fifa tournament

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Ellis Genge was one of the stars of the recent RugbyPass Fifa tournament

“I still get that [racist abuse] now. You try and segregate yourself from all those people who are sort of naive or ignorant enough to be racist, you try and stay away from it as much as you can, but you can’t shield yourself from everyone’s thoughts. 

“I’m more referring when you go out in town after games and stuff. When we went on the South African tour in 2018 I remember after a game we were walking through one of the tunnels and they started hurling racist abuse at myself and a few of the other ethnic boys and Eddie himself. 

“It is still very rife, especially in sport. Look, you can’t control that yourself, you just sort of need to put the message out there. Like Raheem Sterling said, if you have got a platform you can use it. It’s something that needs to be stamped out.”

Genge, who has spoken to RugbyPass before about the need for rugby to expand its horizons and shake off its reputation as a posh white man’s sport, added that he would love to see more black coaches and players involved in rugby.

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“Yeah, I’d like to see that. The issue in rugby is it has been a white man’s game for a number of years. There’s not really many black coaches or ethnic coaches, especially here in England.

“The only one I am aware of – and I actually worked under him – was Paul Hull at Bristol who played for Bristol himself. But other than that it’s dominated by white males, which is obviously not a problem but that is just the foundation the game was built on.

“I would love to see black coaches thriving in this game. Me and Maro (Itoje) have spoken about it before. But there is just not hunger out there for it at the moment. Football pays a lot better so all the kids I know who are young in poverty, they all want to be footballers because they are icons.

“That is the way they are presented commercially, all the footballers are icons. You want to be Raheem Sterling. Growing up I wanted to be a footballer because that is the way they are presented. 

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“I don’t think people are commercialised, especially the black and African boys in rugby or women to be icons, we are not presented like that. I can understand why the youth and the poverty today don’t want to be rugby players because it is not the way we are presented, we’re sort of put on this posh pedestal and it’s slowly breaking the mould.”

Genge made headlines recently due to the formation of a breakaway players’ union, the Rugby Players Epoch (RPE), following the decision by Gallagher Premiership clubs to implement a 25 per cent pay cut.

Amid the revelations that the clubs have now voted to reduce the tournament salary cap and halve the number of marquee players whose salaries can sit outside the cap, Genge added; “Listen, I don’t want to get myself in trouble which I’m quite good at, to be honest. I’ll try and leave that as brief as I can. 

“Obviously no one wants a pay cut and in light of everything that has happened I understand there needs to be cuts made, but if you look at the books and the money that rugby has made, especially off the back of the players with the product, I don’t think these cuts, 25 per cent across the board for everyone, are necessary. That’s my opinion. 

“I believe these are still in negotiation,” he continued amid claims these temporary cuts will now be made permanent. “I don’t want to weaken all the boys by sitting here and bagging the PRL for negotiating because I’m sure they will probably spite us for that.

“But rugby has grown so much. I think it is something like since 2009 the fanbase has gone up by a ridiculous amount, millions and millions. You just had the World Cup in Japan, which was great for everyone and England got to the final for the first time since I don’t know when.”

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Jon 1 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
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Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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