You might talk about Marcus Smith’s kicking or his deft finishing, about Guy Porter’s happy knack of being in the right place at the right time, twice, or Freddie Steward’s strength in the air and his punishing runs from the deep. But really in years ahead, long after all that and the rest of this 52-13 victory has been forgotten about, it will be Ellis Genge’s performance that people are still talking about. Japanese coaches, at least, will still be telling the little kids they are teaching spook stories about him, and how Genge will come for them if they don’t finish their greens or get up and run that one last lap of the track.
The only place they will not mention his name will be in Jiwon Gu’s house, where, you guess, his family will know better than to bring it up for fear of triggering the old tighthead prop. Genge made sure Gu had a long, traumatic afternoon at Twickenham.
