Morahan happy Bristol match his ambitions
FORMER Wallabies star Luke Morahan reckons Bristol’s signing of former All Black Charles Piutau has reinforced his decision to reject offers from France and Japan.
Morahan, 27, featured for Australia against England last year but faces a year in the Championship after nailing his colours to the mast of relegated Bristol.
However, the former Western Force and Queensland Reds Super Rugby-winning utility back has no regrets, telling The
Rugby Paper: “The signing of Charles Piutau, below, came out of the blue but it again shows where the board and coaches want to take this club.
“We know how good a guy Siale Piutau is, so having his brother here next year will be even better for us. From what I know about him from Super Rugby and his time in the Northern Hemisphere, he’s a fantastic player who deserves every accolade he gets.
“It’s a signing that backs up my decision to come here. There were other options and my girlfriend and I were pretty broad in our selection process, but I wasn’t ready for Japan and we were very keen to explore the possibilities of coming to England. “I’ve been pretty fascinated by the Premiership over here and with the ambition of Bristol to go straight back up, it’s something I foresee as being a world-class competition and at this stage of my career I want to be playing at that highest level.”
Morahan added: “We’ll be in the Championship to start with but I got my head around that months ago. Our focus is that we will be back in the Premiership next year and there’s no reason why we can’t be fighting to win things there in future.
“Since arriving a couple of weeks ago I’ve found there’s real direction from head coach Pat Lam. He’s not shy about where he wants to go, which is great, and with Steven Luatua coming on board we’ve got the group together for the first time.
“We have a lot of new guys so it’s great to have that direction and in our first two trial games against Harlequins and Bath, you could see how eager the fanbase is to see us back in the Premiership doing well. There’s exciting times ahead for Bristol.”
In common with most Australians, Morahan has been horrified with the demise of his old side, Western Force, who have now started legal proceedings against the ARU in an effort to avoid the axe and preserve their Super Rugby status.
Morahan said: “It’s a pretty ugly situation there at the moment. Hopefully that’s not the end of the Force and their appeal can be successful.
“What’s happened in Australia didn’t influence my decision, I was coming anyway, but there are obviously a few guys having tough moments.
“The competition structure has definitely hurt Super Rugby and the schedule is not right, but it’s sad that the Force are paying the price for that.”
Morahan accepts his Wallaby hopes are temporarily over, but does not rule out fighting for the green and gold jersey again one day.
He added: “I proved I could play at that level last year and, who knows, I may return to Australia in future and fight for international honours once more. But at the moment it’s gone and my sole focus is on being successful with Bristol.”