Youth Alpha

Youth Alpha caught up with Youth Alpha & Student Alpha Ambassador (and Harlequins and British Lions Rugby player) – Ugo Monye. Here’s what he had to say:

Hi Ugo – you appear to be a bit injured? What’s going on?

I tore the ligament in my toe in a game. I thought I'd dislocated it, but didn't want to leave the game. At the end it really hurt.  I had an operation (at which point he shows Youth Alpha a picture on his phone of loads of stitches on the ball of his foot – gross..). I won't be back playing until December I think.

So how do you recover from something like that? You have to look after yourself and be a bit more strict.
The first couple of weeks is getting the wound to heal and resting the foot. Then the conditioning coaches and physios put together a plan for you. My focuses are healing, core strength and upper body weights, then swimming, then running and then playing.

So, your name’s quite unusual? Is it your actual name?
My full name is actually ‘Ugochukwu Chiedozie Monye’. It's Nigerian, although my surname is French…

Does it mean anything? It means 'God’s crown' and I have it tattooed on my left forearm.

So, have you ever lived in Nigeria? No, I've only ever been there twice actually! I don't even speak Nigerian.

Let’s ask you a bit about rugby - when was the first time you played it?

I was 13, it was at school. I loved football (I support Arsenal, I love them). But the school didn't play football so I thought I'd join in.

What was the hardest skill you had to learn? - I got away with it because I was fast, but the most alien thing was kicking an oval ball instead of a round one. I was so used to football.

So, if you hadn't made it in rugby, what was plan b? I'd have loved to have gone to university and studied business management and marketing - I love how you can take a product and get into peoples’ heads with it! I'm such a sucker for a good advert. Package it up nicely and I'll buy it.

What is your best rugby moment? The British Lions third test - scoring that try. 
It meant so much to me. It felt like redemption. I felt like I came back strong. If that was the last thing I ever did I'd be happy. It gives me goose bumps thinking about it. When I watched it back soon after, I noticed that several people from different countries hugged me which was really moving.  Ricki Flutey wouldn't stop hugging me! It was very sentimental.

What is your worst rugby moment? Against Argentina last November. It was the worst game I have ever played - the harder I tried the worse it was. One of those days where nothing went right.

How do you respond to that? Dunno?? It was tough - I went to church the next day and it was about healing and I thought I can do with that. You have to be honest and open, strip it back. I looked at everything within that week to see if anything had affected me. Your personal life definitely has an effect on your game, but I couldn't find anything. I had trained well, broke my nose but it didn't affect me - in the end I had to use that awful phrase 'one of those games'. The next match was an All Blacks game. I played well for that. You can't lose belief in yourself- no one else will be backing you. I'd have booed me if I'd been in the stands that day - you have to know yourself better than anyone.

So when you became a Christian was it because you were going through a bad patch in life? No, I was actually really happy. Had great friends, money etc, but there was this small nagging thing. I couldn't put my finger on it. Although I was happy it was a kind of quick fix happiness, rather than....the sort of wholesomeness I feel now. I used to pray when things went bad but now I'm a lot more consistent.

Do you pray before a match? Yeah I pray with my mum. I hide somewhere and call her up. And I always say the Lord’s prayer when I run onto the pitch.

What’s your favourite bible verse? A passage actually - Psalm 91: it's about security and comfort. ‘Dwells in the shelter of the most high’ - so true. I love it. Especially going onto the pitch - if you believe that then what do you have to fear?

So is it difficult being a sportsman and a Christian? The temptation you surround yourself with by being a rugby player and in the public eye is real, and it’s not cool to be a Christian. Not in sport. It’s not the ‘in’ thing.  But it's changing. People are becoming a bit more open about it - those guys who are Christians and are speaking up have a massive effect and on other sports persons as well.

So what do the guys at the club think? The guys know me as Ugo and respect me for being me. So they know me as that. I would never force my opinion on them, but if they ask I'll tell them and that opens up questions. I've been there 9 years. That's not to say they don't take the mickey out of me - they massively do. They wonder what's wrong - so Wednesday night is champions league football night, so I say I'm going to Alpha and they think I've done something wrong which is why I need to go to church.

Finally, what’s the best interview question you get asked? The funniest one is when every young kid asks you what you get paid. They're so innocent and don't understand what they're asking - it always amuses me. Their currency is sweets, so if I said 5 pounds a day that's like 'no way that's tons of sweets'…. I love it!