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Outspoken player welfare advocate Ellis Genge to skipper Leicester for first time
Outspoken player welfare advocate Ellis Genge will be happy his opinions during the lockdown have certainly not damaged his standing at Leicester, as he will captain the club for the first time when they visit Wasps in the Gallagher Premiership on Wednesday.
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The England loosehead had spent the initial part of the 2019/20 season’s suspension putting together plans for a new players union, Rugby Players Epoch.
However, he became disillusioned with the laborious challenge of having to individually negotiate with all 13 stakeholder Premiership clubs and shelved the idea on June 19, just weeks before the turmoil which existed across the top-flight game in England filtered down into the Leicester set-up.
Amid rancour over the temporary 25 per cent pay cut becoming permanent, Manu Tuilagi, Telusa Veainu, Noel Reid, Greg Bateman and Kyle Eastmond all quit the Tigers. By July 8, though, Genge has secured a contract extension at the club after he agreed to the proposed salary reduction.
Now, nine weeks later, Genge will skipper Leicester for the first time in what will be his 74th appearance for the club. He is joined by Jake Kerr and Nephi Leatigaga in the front row.
I learnt from the best El Toro https://t.co/bJHJTPxrcY
— Gengey (@EllisGenge) September 6, 2020
Cameron Henderson makes his first starting appearance at lock after arriving at the club in the summer and will partner Blake Enever in the second row. In the back row, Ollie Chessum is named at blindside, Thom Smith at openside and Jordan Coghlan at No8.
Zack Henry starts at fly-half in his fourth appearance for Tigers, partnering Ben White at half-backs. Guy Porter is included at centre alongside Dan Kelly in his first start, with Harry Simmons and Harry Potter on the wings and George Worth at full-back.
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Leicester boss Steve Borthwick said: “With a short turnaround, we have made changes and provided opportunities for some players who did not feature against Sale. Ellis will captain the club for the first time and has been brilliant in the build-up this week, leading the group.
“This group of players have earned the privilege of representing the club on Wednesday and, with all Tigers teams, need to deliver a performance the club and our supporters are proud of.”
Fresh from their win at 2019 champions Saracens, high-flying Wasps welcome back Kieran Brookes from the shoulder injury he sustained in the first restart game last month against Northampton.
Newly promoted first-team squad member, 19-year-old Alfie Barbeary, is named at blindside for his first Premiership start, and there is one potential Wasps debutant in the 23 as new signing Levi Douglas is named as a replacement.
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Charlie Atkinson, who was on the receiving end of the red-carded Owen Farrell tackle at Allianz Park, doesn’t feature.
WASPS: 15. Matteo Minozzi; 14. Zach Kibirige, 13. Malakai Fekitoa, 12. Ryan Mills, 11. Marcus Watson; 10. Jacob Umaga, 9. Dan Robson; 1. Tom West, 2. Gabriel Oghre, 3. Kieran Brookes, 4. Joe Launchbury (capt), 5. James Gaskell, 6. Alfie Barbeary, 7. Thomas Young, 8. Brad Shields. Reps: 16. Tom Cruse, 17. Simon McIntyre, 18. Jeff Toomaga-Allen, 19. Levi Douglas, 20. Jack Willis, 21. Sam Wolstenholme, 22. Jimmy Gopperth, 23. Sam Spink.
LEICESTER: 15. George Worth; 14. Harry Potter, 13. Dan Kelly, 12. Guy Porter, 11. Harry Simmons; 10. Zack Henry, 9. Ben White; 1. Ellis Genge (capt), 2. Jake Kerr, 3. Nephi Leatigaga, 4. Cameron Henderson, 5. Blake Enever, 6. Ollie Chessum, 7. Thom Smith, 8. Jordan Coghlan. Reps: 16. Charlie Clare, 17. Facundo Gigena, 18. Joe Heyes, 19. Harry Wells, 20. Sam Lewis, 21. Ben Youngs, 22. Johnny McPhillips, 23. Andrew Forsyth.
"I've watched it on TV on Monday on my own, no hidden agenda – that's a f**kin' bad tackle"
– The Rugby Pod's Jim Hamilton has had his say on the weekend's major talking point https://t.co/5zsj9tU2jX
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 8, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments