Ellis Genge has brushed off player welfare concerns as the calendar becomes more congested – he’d rather play than train.
Next season’s Six Nations will have just one rest week, instead of the current two, and England will play an extra November Test, four as opposed to the three normally staged in Lions years. But the prop would rather crack on with things instead of having the stop-start Six Nations of the last two decades and says no player is about to turn down a Lions tour.
The prop said: “It is horses for courses, I would rather it was boom, boom, boom and get it all out of the way. You are battle hardened, the more time you have off the more it hurts, the more my neck hurts so I would rather just go through it.
“I understand some people probably want the time away. It is nice to be able to spend a few days with your family, but you are still going home then two days later spending three days in camp. It is not necessarily a rest week. For 48 hours after the game, the two days you have off, you are probably still thinking about the game anyway.”
Under new regulations players are limited to 30 game involvements per season with one minute off the bench counting as an involvement.
But potential Lions tourists such as Maro Itoje, who has had 18 appearances already this season, are likely to sail past that limit with the Australia trip and play-offs to come.
Genge added: “He has always done it, the boy has played loads of rugby, he is robust, it is what he does and I think he enjoys it. If you are asking the question about Lions at the end of the year, I don’t think there is any man in the team that would say ‘no I am all right, I have played too many games’. So that is the answer.”
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2025-03-02 18:09:56
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