Deputy Sport Editor Jacob Bassford and Co-Editor Josh Turner attended York Community Stadium to interview England vice-captain Ellis Genge, Ted Hill, and skills coach Kevin Sinfield.
York Vision were delighted to be invited by the RFU to take part in a writers’ conference alongside staples of English print media rugby journalism, including The Times’ Will Kelleher, The Telegraph’s Daniel Schofield, The Guardian’s Gerard Meagher and The Daily Mail’s Chris Foy.
With phones and recorders loaded onto two chairs, we sat in a circle and spoke to each of the interviewees individually. First up was Ellis Genge.
England’s first-choice loosehead and Vice-Captain, an overall impressive man both in terms of his on-pitch performances and his off-field character, he took the media head-on. A lot of Genge’s frustration was surrounding the narrative that had been framed around England in the media, which he summarised as: “it feels like we can’t win, to be honest.”
It has been interesting to see the different write-ups of the interview, notably the Daily Mail’s headline: “Ellis Genge launches astonishing rant at England’s ‘out of touch’ critics.” The escalation of an informal, even friendly, conversation in a training ground backroom to bold national headlines shows the intense scrutiny that sports figures like Genge are under.
Proudly adorning Vision’s jumper, Jacob was able to get a question to Genge, asking him about how the squad reacted to winning the Calcutta Cup for the first time since 2020 (and only the second time since 2017) and getting over what many have deemed a hoodoo for England since Scotland won the Calcutta Cup in 2018.
Genge seemed to enjoy Jacob’s use of the term “hoodoo” and replied that for England, it was just a case of “drawing a line in the sand” and countering how there was now an expectation for Scotland to win men’s rugby union’s oldest international trophy.
Genge finished off by saying: “Hoodoo, yeah there was a bit of like a stigma around weren’t there that they were just gonna, every time they played us, they were gonna beat us. So yeah, we parked that bus now and move on with the rest of the tournament. But yeah, it’d be lying if you say it didn’t feel brilliant.”
After the interview with Genge finished, next it was the turn of Bath flanker Ted Hill to face the media, fresh off his first cap since July 2021 against the United States and only his third international cap overall (after making his debut against Japan in 2018 as a teenager).
Hill reflected on his patience in prolonged gaps since his last cap as well as working on positional flexibility to cover the second row. Finally, he was asked if he would consider returning to his old club Worcester Warriors (who went into administration in October 2022) if they ever made a return.
Notwithstanding, Hill showcased his professionalism by clearly outlining his commitment to his current club Bath, but no one could blame him at least contemplating the thought of returning to his hometown club should they ever return to the league pyramid of English men’s rugby union.
Unfortunately, neither Vision writer could get a chance to ask Hill a question, but we both felt afterwards that he deserves a chance of staking a claim at a more regular England jersey, even if it has come at the expense of yet another knee (as well as shoulder) injury to Leicester’s George Martin.
The final interviewee was England’s skill coach Kevin Sinfield. Most of the journalists were keen to ask Sinfield on his views on how Marcus Smith has handled transitioning to fullback. Sinfield told us the positional switch was his idea, and he was pretty clear that Smith is capable of becoming as good at fullback as he is at fly half. Writing this on a week later, these comments now seem strangely moot with M. Smith dropped to the bench and Elliott Daly given an unexpected return to the starting fullback jersey for the first time since 2020.
On this subject, Jacob asked Sinfield if he believed there was a future for Freddie Steward at inside centre for England, which has been the subject of some debate amongst fans and in the media because of Borthwick’s preference for the injured George Furbank or now Marcus Smith at fullback instead of Steward.
Sinfield somewhat unconvincingly said “There’s a possibility.” Whilst praising the positional flexibility of England’s first-choice backline, Sinfield admitted trialling Steward at inside centre (like Jordie Barrett did for the New Zealand All Blacks): “I don’t know is the honest answer, I think at the minute it’d be fair to say there are no plans to play Fred at 12 but that could change very quickly.”
England’s selection policy in this Men’s Six Nations has worked more or less, but one has to question whether playing both Smiths has added enough to England’s attack to merit the exclusion of Steward, who offers a lot defensively. But Sinfield is right that, given time it could add another string to England’s bow, so to speak. However, for right or wrong reasons, time is never on England Men’s side when it comes to supporters’ and media expectations.
Vision would like to thank the RFU, particularly Communications Manager Bill Pulling, in allowing us this wonderful opportunity to attend this press conference and for the respect and time afforded to us by Ellis Genge, Ted Hill and Kevin Sinfield in answering questions.