 Ugo Monye in January 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth name | Ugochukwu Chiedozie Monye | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 13 April 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Islington, London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 92 kg (14 st 7 lb) [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Lord Wandsworth College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ugochukwu Chiedozie Monye (born 13 April 1983)[citation needed] is an English sports pundit and former rugby union player,[2] Monye played 14 times for England, 241 times for his only club Harlequins[3] and played twice for the British & Irish Lions on their 2009 tour to South Africa. Monye won both the second division and then the Premiership title with Harlequins, as well as winning the European Rugby Challenge Cup.[citation needed]
As an 18 year old Monye competed at the English Schools' Athletics Championships in the 100 metres, finishing 5th in his heat, in a time of 11.10 seconds.[4] He is friends with Olympians Mark Lewis-Francis and Tyrone Edgar who also competed in the English Schools' Championship.[citation needed]
Monye played for Hampshire RFC U17s and U20s.
Harlequins offered him a professional contract and within 12 months he was a member of the England RFU Sevens team that won the Hong Kong Sevens. Monye was a key member of the Sevens squad throughout the 2002–03 and 2003–04 IRB World Sevens Series, and was part of the team that competed in the 2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong. He was also part of the England RFU Saxons sides that won the Churchill Cup in 2005 and 2008. He first played for Harlequins in a friendly against Glasgow Warriors RFC in August 2002, beginning the following season with five tries in two matches, including a hat trick against Rotherham Titans at Millmoor.
Monye scored five tries against Exeter Chiefs in Harlequins' 70–5 victory at Twickenham Stoop as the side returned to the Guinness Premiership after a season in National One during which Monye scored 16 tries. Before the 2009–10 season, he had run in 47 tries in 105 games for the club.
Monye made his England debut in England's 39–13 victory over the Pacific Islanders at Twickenham in 2008 and started the rest of the autumn internationals against Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
Monye scored his first try for England against Scotland at Twickenham in the Six Nations on 21 March 2009.
Selected for the 2009 Lions' tour of South Africa Monye made the XV for the first Test in Durban. In the first half he was prevented from scoring as he dived over the try line when Jean de Villiers got his hand underneath the ball to prevent a try. In the second half, Monye was through to score but was tackled by Morne Steyn and lost control of the ball.
The Lions lost the Test and Monye lost his place, being replaced by Luke Fitzgerald. The Lions lost the second Test and Monye was recalled, redeeming himself with a 70-metre intercepted try although the Lions lost the series 2–1. He was the highest Lions try scorer of the tour with five tries.
In September 2010, Ugo suffered a career-threatening injury and after surgery he was sidelined for 12 weeks. This ruled him out of Martin Johnson's England Squad for the Autumn Test Series and consequently the 2011 Six Nations tournament. He returned to play for Harlequins who he helped to win the Amlin Challenge Cup, before being named in the England training squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup at the end of the season.
Monye started for Harlequins in their 2011–12 Premiership final victory over Leicester Tigers.[5]
On 24 March 2015, Monye announced he was retiring at the end of the season.[6]
In April 2021, Monye was appointed chair of the Rugby Football Union's independent advisory group on diversity.[7]
In June 2022, during an interview with The Telegraph, Monye argued that rugby union needed to tackle its "heavy drinking" and "laddish" culture in order to become fully inclusive.[8]
Monye presents the Rugby Union Weekly podcast for the BBC[3] with journalist Chris Jones and England scrum half Danny Care. He also presents on BT Sport. In July 2021, it was announced that Monye and Sam Quek would be the new team captains on BBC's Question of Sport quiz show.[9]
From September 2021 Monye was a contestant on the nineteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, paired with professional dancer Oti Mabuse.[10] The couple finished in 11th place.[11] On 21 October Monye announced that he and his wife had split.[12]
Monye's father died shortly before his appearance on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.[13][14]
He is a committed Christian.[15] He shares about his faith on episode 14 of the Alpha Course film series.[16]