Monye out to right some wrongs
Winger Ugo Monye believes there are no excuses for England if they do not raise their game for this year’s Six Nations Championship.
The Harlequins speedster, who emerged onto the international stage during England’s disappointing autumn campaign, is in line to make his Six Nations debut against Italy at Twickenham next weekend and accepts the pressure is on England to reverse their slump in form.
Since current manager Martin Johnson held aloft the trophy following a crushing 42-6 victory over Ireland in Dublin, England’s overall tournament success-rate stands at a poor 52%. England have lost 12 of their subsequent 25 Six Nations Tests – hardly a record to instill confidence, especially after an autumn when they conceded 102 points in losing comprehensively against South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
“We have got a lot to put right,” admitted Monye. “But I am very confident that we have got the right squad and the right attitude going into it. There are no excuses now. If there is any such thing in international rugby as a honeymoon period, then that is certainly over as well. Expectations are high, especially among ourselves.”
The England squad returned yesterday from a week-long training camp in Portugal, where Johnson and his coaches fine-tuned Six Nations preparations.
“It’s great that Johnno has kept the faith, and he has come under criticism for doing that with us younger players. We owe it to him, ourselves, our team-mates and our supporters as well. We had a pretty dismal autumn international series, and it will be good to start the campaign at home. Hopefully, we can give our fans something to cheer about.
“I feel that we owe them a little bit as well. Our pride was dented, and hopefully we can pull tighter than ever and really show them what we are capable of, because the results in the autumn were poor. It was probably a pretty poor reflection of where we are as a team. A lot of our players have gone back to their clubs since the autumn and played well.
“You can either be daunted by these things or you can think it’s a privilege and an honour to pull on an England jersey and going to these places. They are Grand Final games. I am very patriotic, and hopefully I stand for what English rugby is all about. I certainly don’t want to let anybody down.”
After their clash with the Azzurri, England travel to Cardiff to take on Wales at the Millennium Stadium on February 14.
“It would be a terrific achievement to go to Wales and beat the Grand Slam champions in their own backyard,” added Monye. “Obviously, we have got the Italy game before that, but for me there is a huge amount of excitement. I have never played against Wales. And to do that at the Millennium Stadium in front of their own fans would be fantastic.
“We have got a huge amount of firepower, and any team on the back of three or four defeats is dangerous. But to a certain extent, form over the previous however many games goes out of the window.”
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