If
you remember back to when you were at school I’m sure that you looked around you
and saw individuals that you knew were going to be successful in their chosen pursuits for they were driven and blessed with great natural talent. At my old school, Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire,
Ugo Moyne was one of them and now over a decade later he has enjoyed an illustrious career and remains at the heart of Conor O'Shea's Harlequins. Earlier this week, prior to the Aviva Premiership returning I caught up with him to talk all things Harlequins’ related.
There are few individuals
that have remained at one club for their entire career and I was keen to understand
why Harlequins and what changes he has seen at the club over that time;
"It has progressed in every single
way, when I joined there wasn’t an academy and now we have, in my eyes, the best academy in
the Premiership. The Stoop is unbelievable, we were the first to take rugby
onto the big stage with the Big Game and I truly believe that the club is a
great ambassador for rugby. Obviously I’m slightly biased but we have created
wonderful players, fashioned our own style of rugby and really spread the
word of rugby.”
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O-LH showing the Quins way
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Many,
many people speak about the Harlequins’ way and having watch a game or two of myself I have my own ideas about what exactly that means however I asked Ugo to explain it to me;
“The Harlequins’ way is a high
tempo, all guns blazing style of rugby or some people call it high risk, high
reward rugby. It is a style that we love, every rugby player wants to play with the
ball in hand and to play an expansive all court game. It works for us is
something we’ll continue to develop.”
I
questioned if that makes Harlequins more difficult to play;
“I’m not sure that it makes you
more difficult to play, it is a different challenge for teams and it makes them
think. Obviously there are many ways that you can do things, this way
compliments the style of players that we have, the fans get behind it and when
we get it right we are very hard to beat.”
Tonight his side face Gloucester Rugby
at Kingsholm to re-open the Premiership after it’s month away and Ugo is
expecting his team to faced with a tough encounter;
“Obviously Glocuester have been
boosted up front so now they are able to play through their forwards and their backs. It
will be a tough challenge, and even though they are missing a number of people so are we. I mean... we are only
missing the England Captain, one of the world’s best scrum halves, the Club
Captain and an outstandingly brilliant full back...!!!! However the guys that
come in for them will do a job. It is always close up there and it is a hostile
place to go. Personally that doesn’t bother me when I’m on the pitch, it only gives me more of an incentive to play
and show them all what I’m made of and I'm sure the guys out there this week will feel the same.”
Whilst
Ugo is completing his recovery from a groin injury he has been fully involved
in commentating for BT Sport on a number of their games and this weekend he’ll be with
them once again. This is a fairly new string to Ugo’s bow but he has taken to it like a duck
to water, I asked how easy it is to pick up;
“Obviously you have to think
about what you are saying a little more, be more succinct than when you are
talking normally. I know that we all consider ourselves
to be great commentators on the sofa with a cup of tea, but in practice it
certainly takes a little more thinking and learning but I’m loving it.”
“Recovery is going well; I’m
ahead of schedule at the moment which is great. I’m back running now and it is
just about getting fit and making sure that my body is resilient. I imagine I’ll
be back just before the Big Game which is fantastic. It is such a great event to take the club to and fill Twickenham Stadium; The Big Stoop. We'll be hosting Northampton this year and that gives it huge spice, I believe that musical entertainment is just about to be announced too.”
From
day one at Harlequins Ugo has excelled, he gives everything on the pitch and is
a true club man off it and I’ve not doubt that as soon as he is back playing he’ll have a huge hand in steering Harlequins to many a victory this
year. 13 years and counting for a true Harlequin, what a shift!
