Few could have predicted that a New Zealand-born former cage fighter and jiu-jitsu champion would be in the running for Steve Borthwick’s Six Nations side. But much like his impressive run of performances for Exeter Chiefs this season, Ethan Roots’ colorful story would make most people sit up and take notice.
Six years ago the combative flanker, who qualified for England through his father, worked 10-hour shifts for an Auckland-based construction company as a construction worker after leaving school without a qualification.
Rugby had been a hallmark during his school years, but after becoming estranged from the sport as a teenager due to a delayed growth spurt, the idea of taking it up professionally faded.
In an attempt to curb his rebellious nature, Roots sought other opportunities in mixed martial arts, including a brief, albeit memorable stint in cage fighting, at the age of 16.
“I tore the guy’s biceps tendon off,” Roots recalled. “He was a 27-year-old farmer from the far north and he just wouldn’t tap and I had him in an arm’s butt. My mom still has it on video, not that I want it to resurface. I was put down in the first round!”
The one-off match ended in a draw. But Roots’ promising career in Brazilian jiu-jitsu was confirmation that he had the raw athleticism and strength to reach the top: he won eight different national titles, as well as one gold and three silver medals at the Pan- Pacific Championships.
“The best way people describe jiu-jitsu is as human chess,” Roots explains. “I really enjoyed the mental and physical challenge that came with it. I started having my growth spurts, growing over 6 feet tall.
“I was pretty serious about competing in jiu-jitsu, so I started watching my diet. There was also the high of seeing the results, so all in all it made it enjoyable.”
His time spent wrestling on the mats and putting others in chokeholds set him up for a return to rugby after his jiu-jitsu career was unceremoniously cut short. “Me and the [jiu-jitsu] The daughter of the head coach was in a relationship at the time,” says Roots. “He found out, didn’t like it and kicked me out of the club. It didn’t feel right to go back, so I didn’t. I picked up rugby and fell in love with it again.”
Roots had gained a solid rugby foundation at Rosmini College in Auckland, where alumni include New Zealand-born Wales fly-half Gareth Anscombe, before turning to regional sevens, where he teamed up with Mark Telea.
His unconventional rugby route – which saw him juggle labour-intensive shifts while playing for North Harbor in the New Zealand national provincial championship – meant he never appeared on the All Blacks’ radar.
“I got up around 4:30, went to the gym, had no idea what I was doing, but jumped on the bike, lifted some weights and got out of there,” Roots says. “I would go to work for ten to eleven hours and then go to rugby training. I did that about four days a week, with a break on Friday and a match on Saturday.
“I might work on Sundays for some extra money, depending on how much money I spent that week. I’ve been there and done that, so I understand what a privilege it is to play rugby every day for a living.”
Roots would not land his first professional contract with Harbor until the age of 21, but was soon pursued by three of New Zealand’s Super Rugby franchises. He eventually signed for Scott Robertson’s Crusaders and found himself sharing a dressing room with All Blacks like Scott Barrett. “It was crazy,” Roots remembers. “It was quite surreal because I was on the construction sites.”
But he struggled to adapt to the rigors of rugby at the highest level. Roots made just one appearance for the club – and had six minutes of professional rugby under his belt when he signed a two-year deal with Ospreys in 2021. At the Welsh club he reinvented himself and began to harbor international ambitions before being picked. by Exeter.
A diligent tackler with plenty of volume in the back row, Roots represents a new wave of young Chiefs belying their inexperience in the Premier League, where they remain in the mix for the play-offs.
As well as Borthwick name-checking last week, the 26-year-old has also been tipped as a capable successor to Courtney Lawes. “He has been a natural leader for us,” said Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter. “His maturity in the group is beyond his years. He was never up for a gamble.”
In what feels like a full-circle moment, Roots, whose father was born near Reading but emigrated to New Zealand with his adoptive parents as a 15-year-old, has connected with members of his extended English family after doing of an online ancestry test. , and even welcomed a few of his biological cousins to Sandy Park for games.
While the father-of-two is fiercely proud of his Maori blood, which he inherits from his mother’s side of the family (a large Maori tattoo stretches across his inked back), Roots has no qualms about wearing the red rose to carry.
“Even if I had been born here, I would still be a proud Maori and a proud British,” says Roots, whose partner, Tessa, is an international basketball player for the New Zealand women’s team, the Tall Ferns. “I don’t think there’s any shame in that. I don’t speak much Maori. We didn’t grow up with it, but I still have my family behind my back. It’s a huge honor to just be mentioned and get their attention. If given the opportunity, I would like to take on that responsibility.”
Should he be named in Borthwick’s England squad on Thursday, Roots could face the biggest fight yet – the one to earn a first Test cap.