Wales reap rewards of pushing Morgan towards bigger things

WAYNE Pivac believes Wales are reaping the rewards of dropping Jac Morgan and asking him to get bigger.

The decision not to take the Ospreys backrower, who had led the way for breakdown turnovers in the United Rugby Championship, on tour to South Africa in the summer was met with widespread derision from Welsh supporters.

Even now, with Morgan back in the squad and set for a start against Georgia after an impressive appearance off the bench against Argentina, many would argue that dropping Morgan was still the wrong decision, regardless of any change in size.

However, Pivac says that the 22-year-old has delivered on what was asked of him and has now been rewarded a start in a new-look back-row alongside Justin Tipuric and debutant Josh Macleod.

“With Jac, he’s put on a little bit of size, which is what we are after,” said Pivac after naming his team. “It’s exciting to see him go.”

When asked to elaborate on when Pivac offered that work-on to Morgan and how he had responded to it, the Wales coach was insistent that Morgan needed to build his size up, despite the breakdown impact he has had in the domestic game.

“When we did not select him for South Africa, it was not about his ability, we wanted him to put a bit more size on,” added the Wales coach.

“In other words, get stuck in in the gym. He is a strong boy anyway but just make him even stronger.

“In terms of the breakdown area, there are a lot of collisions, a lot of force coming in at speed and the size these boys can put on in a three-month period rather than playing rugby and risking injury, it’s been great for him.

“He is looking a beast in training. We saw on the weekend he has certainly moved on and developed further.”

Morgan won the first of his four caps earlier this year with a start in the Six Nations win over Scotland, which he followed up with replacement appearances against England and France.

However, he was overlooked for the summer tour of South Africa, with Pivac citing a relative lack of size for the physical challenge of the Springboks. Morgan spoke about the challenge of responding and earning a recall last month.

“I was obviously pretty gutted when I was told about it,” he said in October.

“But Wayne told me what I needed to work on, and in the summer I tried to work on those areas and develop my game.

“The Ospreys coaches have been brilliant. They told me just to concentrate on the job ahead and that job was the Ospreys. They told me to try to do my best in training and playing and try to get better as a player. They just emphasised we all needed to improve as individuals and as a team and work hard over pre-season so we could start the new campaign as best as we could.

“I’ve tried to improve my attacking game and get more ball in hand. I’m always trying to develop, doing the little extras in training, the little drills around the jackal.”