Whatever happens on Saturday, Ellis Genge will leave Leicester with his promise intact. It was during the club’s steep decline, in which the once dynastic force finished 11th in the Premiership in 2018 and 2019, that the combative England prop vowed to remain in the east Midlands until a corner had been turned.
“I made a pact a long time ago that I’d never leave Tigers if they were in a dark hole,” Genge says as he prepares for the Premiership final against Saracens. “I had all sorts of offers to go elsewhere when we were bottom of the pile. I said I wanted to stick it out to see brighter days. So I can hopefully leave with my head held high.”
In December Genge announced he would be returning to Bristol, his hometown club where he started his professional career in the British and Irish Cup in 2013, scoring a try as an 18-year-old in a 62-7 win against Scottish side Gala. He joined Leicester in 2016, as much a result of off-field issues as for rugby reasons, having been arrested in Belfast the year before after a match against Ulster. “I am probably better off away from [Bristol],” he told the Express in 2017.
A working-class kid from a council estate, Genge was always going to stand out in a sport that is still out of step with the rest of the UK, and he did so at an organisation still assured of its grand standing in the game. In 2013 Leicester secured their fourth Premiership title in seven years, having reached every final between 2005 and 2013. But as Saracens became the new powerhouse on the scene, the Tigers struggled to keep pace.
“In the past, especially when I was here last time, it was very much: ‘Right, we’ve got a good pack, let’s try and kick the shit out of them and see what happens next,’” says the fly-half Freddie Burns, who rejoined Leicester this season having spent three years with the club between 2014 and 2017.
This one-dimensional approach yielded expected results. In 2016 and 2017 Leicester finished fourth in the league. In 2018 they failed to reach the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons. The 2018-19 campaign kicked off with a 40-6 defeat at Exeter and included a run of eight consecutive defeats. “It’s horrible, it’s not nice to be a part of,” Genge says of that torrid run. “It was probably easier to lose than it was to win. I thought we were going to get relegated. I definitely had [that] feeling.”
Were it not for the salary-cap scandal at Saracens, Leicester would have been demoted a year later. They won just six of their 22 matches and ended the 2019-20 season with 29 points, their worst ever tally.
Steve Borthwick arrived and immediately set a higher standard for his players. He placed his faith in youngsters and promoted from the triumphant under-18s team that won consecutive academy league titles, developing the talents of Freddie Steward, Jack van Poortvliet and George Martin.
Borthwick has also encouraged his players to kick more and they have gone on to average more kicks per game (34.8) and made more metres from kicks per game (1,091) than any other team in the league. But perhaps his masterstroke was handing the captaincy to a player many had written off as unruly: Genge.
Lewis Moody, who represented Leicester 223 times during their golden age, has likened Genge’s leadership to that of the club’s most famous skipper, Martin Johnson. And though the 27‑year‑old’s reign began with a record 54-7 defeat at Wasps in September 2020, he has proved a catalyst for change, inspiring through example, scrumming and rucking and rampaging from the front foot. Now that he’s on the verge of saying goodbye, how does he want to be remembered? “As someone who was always himself,” Genge says after a prolonged pause. “And to my teammates, as someone who would do anything for them.”
He has yet to pack his bags for the move back home, a change Genge insists has always been motivated by a desire to be closer to his family. “Knowing that there are things going on down there and I’m up here, I know it’s not a million miles away, I just want to be accessible. I’m at peace with it.”
Genge expects an attritional final in what he describes as “the biggest game of my career”. Both teams, he explains, play a similar brand of rugby, one focused on eking out territorial gains from the boot and outmuscling their fellow heavies on the pitch. “It’s probably going to be a battle of the kick-chasers,” he says. “They sort of invented that, didn’t they? All those years ago when they started dominating. That’s high-pressure rugby. For us it’s just about executing as well as we can and for them it will be the same.”
There are redemptive threads within reach for both clubs. For Saracens, victory would underline their credentials after an ignominious year in the Championship. For Leicester, an 11th Premiership crown would consign two woeful seasons to the margins of their fabled history.
As much as he would love to lift that title, Genge doesn’t need to prove anything this weekend. He has already delivered on his promise.
