Leicester Tigers players need time away from rugby, says Ugo Monye

Geordan MurphyImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Former Leicester full-back Geordan Murphy took interim charge of the Tigers in September

Leicester Tigers should "go paintballing or spend a day in the pub" to get their mojo back, says former England winger Ugo Monye.

The Tigers were beaten 34-11 at home by Racing 92 at the weekend to all but end their Champions Cup hopes.

Racing scored three tries in the first 20 minutes, blowing away a Leicester side who have lost nine of their past 10 games in all competitions.

"I would take the guys away from rugby," said Monye.

"It is not giving them any joy at the moment and you need to find joy in a different way."

However, Monye says the 10-time Premiership champions can still have confidence in the future because they have the "best scrum in Europe".

"If they were a confident side with that scrum, they'd be battering teams," he added.

The ex-British and Irish Lions winger was relegated from the Premiership with Harlequins in 2005, and says it can be "difficult to dig yourself out of a hole" when confidence is low.

"We trained harder and longer, which made the coach feel better, but that wasn't what we needed at all," said Monye.

"Sometimes you need a fresh voice."

Leicester interim head coach Geordan Murphy says he has never known the club to be at such a low point. The Irishman is in the process of bringing in a new defence coach.

A number of candidates, including former France and New Zealand assistant coach Dave Ellis, have been interviewed already.

"The board have been quite supportive of me and they've said 'let's get it right, let's make sure we add somebody who's got some real experience to the coaching room', and that's what we're looking to do at the moment," Murphy told BBC Radio Leicester.

"We've sat down with some defensive coaches and we've sat down with some coaches who've got experience from different sports and different things across the world of rugby.

"We want to add someone who is going to have a real impact on the whole coaching room, not just in defence, not just in attack, but someone we can all learn from."

You can listen to the full interview on BBC Radio 5 live's Rugby Union Weekly podcast here.