Had Ethan Roots had eyes for a different girl when he was a teenager we may never have heard of the forward who has just been called up to the England squad.
The New Zealand-born flanker, who has earned his first call-up after having a breakout season at Exeter, may never have picked up a ball in anger had he not been kicked out of his jiu-jitsu club by his coach.
“I was dating his daughter and he didn’t like that, so he asked me to leave and it never felt right going back for a load of personal reasons,” 26-year-old Roots told BBC South West.
“My school was a rugby school, so I just fell into it naturally and didn’t really look back as soon as I fell into it.”
Having grown up in Auckland with an English father, Roots has not had your typical route into rugby union.
He competed internationally in jiu-jitsu before his teenage love life got in the way and balanced working on construction sites with training as he realised he was half-decent with the oval ball, first for North Harbour and then with Super Rugby side Crusaders.
“I can appreciate it a little bit more than people who have come through academies because I’ve been in the workforce and I know if it’s raining here and we’re throwing a rugby ball around and having a bit of fun with guys you call mates, it’s a lot more fun that sitting around on a building site digging a hole or knocking a nail in with hammer,” he said.
Roots’ early days involved being in the gym by 5am before getting to a building site for 7am, finishing at 5pm and then heading straight for rugby training.
“I enjoyed those times,” he added.
“It was a good crew, I had a lot of really good mates who were doing the same thing at the same time.
“I enjoyed it because you started to see results and I was starting to play better rugby, so you enjoy seeing that sort of stuff so you don’t mind putting in the hard work behind the scenes.
“I’d still be playing for free at my local club if I wasn’t doing it professionally, but I’ve just got the lucky opportunity to do it professionally.”
Roots got a call-up to the Maori All Blacks in 2020, but he never managed to establish himself at Crusaders – Super Rugby’s most successful side.
Having always wanted to be a professional player he got his big break at Welsh side Ospreys in 2021 after his first full season at North Harbour. Roots and his family packed their bags and headed for Swansea, where he would spend two full seasons playing in the United Rugby Championship.
“I’ve always wanted to play top level rugby and test myself against the best,” he says.
“I was pretty happy where I got to by the end of things at Ospreys, in my two years I think I developed a lot as a person and as a player, so I was pretty happy with how things went there.”
His performances for Ospreys, both at home and in Europe, caught the eye of Exeter and he was one of a host of new players to move to the Chiefs in the summer.
Roots was far from the biggest name to head to Sandy Park in pre-season, but he has quickly gone from under the radar to the star of the show – starting in 18 of Exeter’s 19 games in league and cups this season.
“I’m surprised about how the last six or seven months have shaped up for me,” he said.
“When I first got here I knew I’d be scrapping just to get a jersey every weekend, there’s lots of good players already here.
“Back row’s one of those positions as well where you’re never guaranteed, you have one bad week and you might be out of the team and you might not see a way back in, it’s a very hotly contested position.
“It would have been pretty arrogant if I thought I was going to come here and just walk into the team and do my thing, but I’ve been lucky enough, I think, to earn a jersey and lucky enough to keep it as well.”
Now England awaits, and the chance to make his debut in the Six Nations for a side he watched beat the All Blacks in a World Cup semi-final in 2019 on television as he dreamt of becoming a professional.
“I’d just be speechless really,” he said about potentially making his debut.
“Just getting named in the team would be a hard thing to process, it’s been hard to process the call that I had and the announcement.
“I’ll just be trying to process it and then to produce something and do the jersey some justice.”
