‘Nightmare’ England star left team-mates ‘worried about making it to the weekend’
Ex-Bristol team-mate lifts lid on 'nightmare' Ellis Genge
Former player Ollie Hayes has claimed that team-mates did their “level best” to avoid a young Ellis Genge in tackling practice during his early Bristol days.
The former hooker claimed that Genge was an “absolute beast in training” when he first joined Bristol in 2013 at the age of 18, saying: “This 18-year-old turned up and no one had seen anything like it.”
Hayes, who played alongside Genge on his debut, told Orchard Financial Advisers: “In tackling practice, everyone did their level best to avoid him as he came at you like a rhino… hence his nickname ‘Baby Rhino’.
“Even the older players in the squad, who had been there and done that, would try and find a way to be on his team in training so they didn’t have to tackle him.
“He wasn’t as big as he is now back then, but there was an intensity that many hadn’t seen before, and certainly didn’t want to see up close. Some of the players were genuinely worried about not making it through to the weekend’s match in one piece.”
Baby Rhino
Hayes wasn’t in the least surprised that Genge, who now plays for Bristol after a six-year stint at Leicester, has 70 caps for England as well as being a British and Irish Lion.
“In the gym, he’d be benching weights that other players just couldn’t match. Even last year, I saw him bashing out crazy reps on Instagram, and thought ‘standard’,” he said.
Hayes, who now runs a gym in Bath, continued: “On the pitch, let’s just say you were glad you were playing with him and not against him.
“Packing down alongside him, I’ve never been happier. It gave you an extra bit of confidence that you were in the thick of it with a player who could not just look after himself but you, too.
“Alongside his talent, and he has buckets of it, he had an aggression inside that took him to another level. And yet off the pitch, he’s the loveliest bloke you could meet.”
Hayes is backing Genge to be an England centurion, with 100 caps. “That fire inside is showing no signs of waning. And when Genge is on form, which he usually is, it’s hard for any England coach not to pick him.”
Hayes added that the prop can be a great source of match tickets, but it’s best not to ask him on international day.
Hungover on the morning of the England v Scotland Six Nations match in Murrayfield last year, Hayes WhatsApped Genge to see if he had a spare ticket going for a friend who was in Edinburgh.
Genge replied, “Seriously, Bab, it’s match day.”
