The science of wings

When Ugo Monye first attended Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire, he had the same experience many young black South African boys have had when walking into a rugby environment for the first time.

He was the only black kid in the school, a fact that didn't first click when he attended the alma mater of Jonny Wilkinson.

"I was quite naive and maybe ignorant of that fact, but I guess after a couple of weeks I thought, 'Um, there's no other black guys here. What's mum doing to me?'" Monye told The Guardian earlier this year.

"In fairness, teachers and colleagues were fantastic with me and I was never seen as a black kid. I was always just Ugo, a guy who hopefully got on with kids."

Now he's Ugo, the British and Irish Lions wing who scored two blistering tries against the awful Golden Lions this week.

The athletic pedigree of Monye, born to Nigerian parents in London, is impressive: his cousin, Jude Monye, was part of the Nigerian team that won silver in the Sydney Olympics, and Ugo has a 100 metres best of 10,65 seconds.

After his first match at Coca-Cola Park, the 25-year-old is looking forward to returning to the fast grounds of the Highveld in weeks to come.

"You look at the speed of the backline (against the Golden Lions). We love the hard tracks ... it really suits our game," said Monye, who admitted he had felt some effects from the altitude. "It is tough, but while you're in the game you feel fine. It's just in that recovery period when you have that feeling of asthma, when you're wheezing a bit."

Wheezing is hardly likely to stop a man who has recovered from a bulging disc in his back in 2007, an injury so severe he spent four days lying on his back on a friend's floor, unable to move. Through the use of Pilates and other rehab, he has returned to the sport in which he made his professional debut at the age of 19.

"I felt as though I played well," said Monye of his role in the Lions' back three on Wednesday night. "You talk about dreams coming true and this was it. It's a case of not patting yourself on the back for too long. As well as we played, the (Golden) Lions weren't great.

"I thought we suffocated them, but we've got a bigger challenge in the next game, and the next game after that. It's a 10-game tour."

The win kicked off the Lions tour proper after they had struggled to overcome the Royal XV in Rustenburg and showed the considerable depth the Lions have in the backline. Much has been spoken of the influence of Brian O'Driscoll and Jamie Roberts at centre, but at wing and fullback the Lions don't look too shabby either.

"Yeah, there is a lot of huge competition right throughout the squad," said Monye. "Shane Williams is the world player of the year, Tommy Bowe can't stop scoring, Luke Fitzgerald just won a Heineken Cup, and hopefully there's me in the mix as well. Tommy's a good guy and we've been together a couple of weeks now. I think getting those combinations and working off other guys is something we've been working towards as a back three. Tommy is a very intelligent player and I like working with him.

"You have to go looking for work. When you've got guys like Stephen Jones who can put anyone through a hole, Brian O'Driscoll and Jamie Roberts making those breaks, you'd be a fool not to follow them; they're always going to offload. It is all about working for each other."

In Durban on June 20, Monye and Bowe may well be the wings against Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen. If the ball does manage to sneak wide, expect a riot of running.

June 20 - South Africa (Absa Stadium, Durban) 15h00

• This article was originally published on page 22 of The Star on June 06, 2009