Are you ready to Listen?

Last Friday evening was the East Midlands rugby derby between bitter rivals Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers a game that will get the blood of players and fans pumping, previous encounters have not disappointed but this year’s fixture did in that Leicester Tigers are on a poor run of form and Northampton Saints currently playing some of the best rugby they have done for a number of years, the match ended in 29-15 win for Northampton Saints.

My family and I are passionate about Northampton Saints and whilst over the moon with the result against the Tigers, something happened after the game which has given me much to think about over the weekend.

The highlight of the evening was after the game when the majority of the crowd had left the Welford Road Stadium in Leicester, my son and I do on occasions hang around to chat with the players and coaches, it is unusual in that most professional sports don’t allow you access to your team but thankfully in rugby this is something that is encouraged by the clubs.

So as a Northampton Saints fan you might be surprised that my highlight of the evening comes from the actions of a Leicester Tigers player called Ellis Genge, Ellis is 24 years old with 8 England caps.

Ellis was approached by a young boy, who I would guess is around 7/8 years old, the young fan was vying for the attention of Ellis, having spotted his young fan Ellis made eye contact and took the opportunity to engage in conversation and listen …………………… the young fan told Ellis how excited he was to meet him and how he had just started to play rugby playing in the forwards and how amazing his coaches are and what a fantastic club he plays at.

After listening Ellis responded with words of encouragement and further questions, this exchange went on for about 10 minutes, I was stood about 10 metres away from them Ellis and the young fan shook hands, had a photo together and they parted ways, as the boy walked towards me he clenched his fist and said to his father “Dad, that was amazing I really want to be like Ellis Genge”

Ellis used words like “I see,” “I know,” “Sure,” and “Thank you,” giving the young fan verbal affirmation that he was listening.

How amazing is that, Ellis having had a very difficult 80 minutes on the pitch along with the disappointment of losing the local derby he was able to make time to actively encourage through his listening skills, so many of us tend to talk too much, sometimes talking defeats the purpose of encouragement.

Ellis you have done yourself and your club proud