England star, Ellis Genge has shared his thoughts on what he feels people want to see when they watch rugby.
His comments were related to “animosity and violence” in the game. This is a topic that doesn’t get talked about enough at the moment, as the importance of safety is rightly the focus. This idea raises the question of whether we can make the physicality of rugby even more entertaining while still making it safer.
What did Ellis Genge say?
Genge was reflecting on a half-time incident with a younger prop, Afolabi Fasogban. The two had a scuffle as Fasogban was in a dispute with one of Genge’s teammates. Genge rushed in to get involved.
Genge said to TNT Sports after the game, “I think I’m tarnished with the brush of a hot head, but I think the animosity and violence is what we crave in rugby.”
He went on to say, “We should embody it and not shy away from it.”
This seems like a relatively controversial statement with all the work that World Rugby have been doing to reduce risk in the game.
Risk vs entertainment
This incident added an extra element to the clash between Bristol and Gloucester on Friday night and will be something that will be covered in the build-up when these sides come to meet again in the future. Rugby is not great at building rivalries that aren’t built on location or merit. For being such a physical sport, we don’t look at this “niggle” in the game positively and the powers that be try to snuff it out at every opportunity.
Ellsi Rugby is a game where some of the best athletes in the world put in massive physical contact against each other for 80 minutes, and we don’t expect there to be anything outside of the whistle being blown.
World Rugby’s focus on reducing head contact for players over recent years has been crucial, with all the recent research that has come out. The 20-minute red card has gone some way to reducing the penalty for accidentally careless play and intentionally reckless play. We want these incredible athletes to be able to show their physicality without them having to worry about the impact it will have on them after their career ends. In my opinion, the word violence was likely misplaced in Genge’s sentiment here.
