MORGAN’S EXIT WILL BE SUCH A BIG BLOW FOR THE SCARLETS
RARELY does the departure of a player who has featured in fewer than 20 competitive matches for a team cause a stir.
But Jac Morgan’s summer move from the Scarlets to their closest rivals, the Ospreys, certainly did.
That is because the 21-year-old back-rower looks every inch a superstar in the making, which is why the deal represented such a major coup for the Swansea-based region.
Morgan got his breakthrough opportunity in Llanelli this season with rival opensides James Davies and Josh Macleod enduring injury-hit campaigns.
He took his chance with both hands and is now earmarked as the hottest young prospect in the Welsh game.
But he’s done things the hard way. In his formative years he was deemed surplus to requirements at the Scarlets academy. He ended up beginning an engineering apprenticeship and playing for Aberavon.
His performances in the Welsh Premiership and at Wales age-grade level convinced the Scarlets to reconsider. In January 2019, they came back in for him but he continued to play in the Welsh Premiership to further his development.
Ioan Cunningham, who was the Scarlets’ forwards coach at the time, recalls the conversations with thenhead coach Wayne Pivac.
“He was always spoken about in weekly meetings when we were discussing players that were coming through,” said Cunningham.
“He came through a bit of a different route because he played Premiership rugby for Aberavon. It brought a fresh approach for him.
“The way you deal with tough times makes you as a person and a player.
“He’s the type of character that would just get his head down, work hard day in, day out and get to the stage he wanted to get to, regardless of how he did it.
“He proved that and loved him at Aberavon.
“There is something to be said for playing with guys who have maybe played 200 games at that level. Just talking about their experiences and the dark arts. That 100 per cent helped him along the way.”
Very quickly, the Scarlets management realised Morgan’s performances demanded an opportunity, so they threw him into the first-team environment.
“We knew we had to give him an opportunity but it was just about when we did it,” explained Cunningham.
“It was about getting the balance right. He was on fire for the Wales Under-20s, he was captain. It was important to us and him that he did that.
“We brought him into our training environment after the Six Nations campaign and he was excellent, rubbing shoulders with Cubby (James Davies) and Josh Macleod. He was learning from those guys.
“We would say to him: ‘This is what Josh is good at, so what are you good at? What are your strengths and work-ons?’
“He was always open and honest. He’s very coachable and willing to learn.”
With an old head on young shoulders, Morgan thrived.
His rugby IQ is such that he picked things up quickly and displayed an ability to read the game well.
There were the inevitable question marks over whether a youngster, still only 19, could handle the rigours of the professional game, but the early signs were positive on that front too.
Cunningham insists they didn’t need to give him much game-time to realise he was a special talent.
“You could see it in training,” he said. “He was picking things up quickly, understanding his running lines and those cheat lines.
“He knew how to manipulate an opponent who was falling to the floor and how he could win the race to get over the ball first.
“Jac was seeing very early on. all
I think they those things
“As a coach, you did think to yourself ‘can he deal with the physicality if he steps up?’ But we were confident in his ability to do that.”
In the November of that year, with Brad Mooar now in charge of the region and eight months after introducing him to the senior training group, the Scarlets handed Morgan his debut in a Challenge Cup clash against London Irish.
After limited openings in his first season, 2020-21 has been a huge year for the now 21-year-old.
His swashbuckling performances in the PRO14 have been irresistible as he snaffled 14 turnovers, putting him joint top where that particular statistic is concerned.
He has been delivering, perhaps earlier than some might have expected, on all the potential he showed at age-grade level.
“He’s made the transition from being an under-20s and a Premiership player into that PRO14 team quite seamlessly,” says Cunningham.
“He’s up there at the top of the turnover stats in the PRO14. Not only that, he’s one of these opensides that has a good balance to his game as well.
“Jac’s a good ball-carrier and is deceptively strong in contact. He understands the linking side of it as well, he knows he needs to be a distributor as well as being willing to stick his head in dark places that aren’t pleasant.”
On his skills at the breakdown, Cunningham added: “Not only is he strong and technically good, he’s very intelligent as well.
“In the last few games of the season it was only a matter of time. You could see him watching the third breakdown, then the fourth breakdown and suddenly, here he comes, he’s identified an opportunity and he’s in over the ball.
“That comes with his work-rate as well. He ticks a lot of big boxes in that area of the game.”
It’s tough to pick holes in Morgan’s game, but there is always room for improvement.
Cunningham feels the growth comes at the line-out, using former Wales skipper Sam Warburton as an example there.
“He can still work on his handling and distribution, especially if you look at the style of game Wales want to play, with athletes and ball handlers in the wide channels,” said Cunningham.
“That could be a work-on for him. The Scarlets also like to play that way.
“He could also add another string to his bow at the set-piece, becoming more of a jumper in the line-out. I look back to Sam Warburton – he was fantastic at the breakdown but he had to develop his line-out game.
“Those type of things would be great for Jac to become a more rounded player as he matures.”
Morgan’s startling rise to prominence this year has catapulted him of what can be achieved
into the Wales selection debates.
The national side’s summer schedule is up in the air at the moment due to Covid. But it looks likely a development series of matches – with key names away with the British and Irish Lions – will take place on home soil.
Pivac, now in charge of Wales of course, didn’t do a great deal of direct work with Morgan at the Scarlets but he is familiar with the talent.
“He’s definitely an option for Wales this summer,” says Cunningham. “He’ll definitely be a player that is being discussed among the coaches.
“The challenge is that we have got a lot of talent in that position across the four regions.
“It’ll come down to how many they decide to select. I think he’ll be involved in their training programme so they can have a look at him in that environment.
“In my opinion, I don’t think he’s far away at all.”
Morgan’s rise, apace.
There will be no eyebrows raised if Pivac does decide to select a player who looks destined for a long career at the top of the game.
In light of his rapid development, it comes as something of a surprise that the Scarlets will see him stroll through the exit door when the Rainbow Cup reaches its conclusion.
The region say they did all they could to keep him but it wasn’t enough as he heads across the Loughor this summer.
It’s a case of the Scarlets’ loss very then, continues
much being the Ospreys’ gain.
“Jac has a great mix. He can really kick on and be a future captain for a team, someone that you can build a team around,” concludes Cunningham.
“He speaks well and at the right time. He goes about his business quietly and he is already respected among players and coaches. That will only grow over time.
“I also think he’ll kick on to international honours.
“It’s one that the Scarlets have lost out on, in my opinion. They could have grown him into a future captain of the side. Unfortunately they’ve lost him to the Ospreys.
“I thought it would have been great for the Scarlets if they’d kept hold of him.”