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LONDON :It should probably be no surprise that Ellis Genge took a long pause before answering the question of how he felt to be leading his country after being named as England captain against Fiji on Saturday as Maro Itoje starts on the bench.
Genge, now 30, has never been the typical England player, whose public speaking has been honed by a decade of private school education, and he eschewed the standard "it's an honour and a privilege" line as he pondered his answer to journalists soon after coach Steve Borthwick had announced the appointment.
"Yeah, what does it mean?" he thought out loud. "It's an honour every time you run out really, it’s not necessarily something that massively changes the way I feel about representing England.
"It doesn’t make the shirt any heavier for me. Yes it’s a crazy thing to be able to say in years to come that you have captained your country three times and that's something I’ll do with great pride. But it’s not something that’s massively absorbing my week."
Genge's less-than wholehearted embrace of the role could have something to do with the previous occasions when he did it - a record 53-10 home defeat by France and a 20-9 loss to Wales, both in 2023 - but he explained that his career has been studded with almost accidental captaincies that he never attached much importance to.
"It wasn't something I dreamt of doing," he said. "I've been given the captaincy in weird ways I guess. At Hartpury, I didn't think I was going to get it, then I captained Bristol a few times, then at Leicester to the Premiership, but it's never been something I've asked for.
"They usually just give it to you as you get a bit older, which is a bad sign."
The hard-carrying loosehead prop was one of the stars of the victorious British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, playing in all three tests, and his passionate pre-match addresses to his fellow forwards are among the highlights of the recently-released documentary of the tour.
He said, however, that what viewers saw was a somewhat toned-down version of his usual call to arms as he was not quite as comfortable bawling at his new-found colleagues from Ireland, Scotland and Wales as with his established teammates.
"There was a bit of banging the chest but it's tough as it's a different dynamic," he said. "You don’t know everyone on a deeper level. You don’t know what gets people going, that’s why you try to get to bond as much as you can.
"The Irish boys talk and are a bit more calculated. They have call meetings before, that was all new to me.
"It was nice to see how everyone did it a bit differently. But when the time comes, as long as you feel emotion speak and your heart comes through, as opposed to sometimes you see people and it feels like they have a piece of paper they are reading from. When you are in the moment and speaking from how you feel, I don’t think you can go too far wrong.”
England beat Fiji in their last meeting, in what turned into a tight 2023 World Cup quarter-final, but their last clash at Twickenham in a tournament warm up two months earlier was one of the lowest points in the team's recent history as they lost to the islanders for the first time.
"It hurt. It was a bit of a rude awakening," he said. "We had a barbecue afterwards and it was tough. Courtney Lawes spoke and said this doesn't define us, we'll bounce back and be better for it. And he was right.
"It probably made us better because we went out and put together one of our best performances against Argentina with 14 men (the victory in the opening pool game of the World Cup).
"And we’ve had massive growth, since then. We are a completely different side. Not just personnel-wise but the brand of rugby, the way we play the game now is way different, the way we attack the game, so here's to looking forward."
