Here are your rugby evening headlines for Tuesday, 31 May.
Dropped Wales star wins league award
Jac Morgan has won the Turnover King award for this season's United Rugby Championship.
Morgan, who missed out on Wales selection recently after Wayne Pivac told him he needed to be stronger over the ball, picked up the award after making 24 turnovers across the season. Deon Fourie of the DHL Stormers finished second with 23, while Ulster’s Marcus Rea (19), the Ospreys’ Morgan Morris (17) and the Dragons’ Ollie Griffiths (16) made up the rest of the top five.
Read more: The difficult Wales team meeting to be held as players arrive amid 'last chance' warning
Speaking about his award win, Morgan said: “Delighted to win this award this season after just missing out last year. It’s been a great first season at the Ospreys and hopefully we can all push on next year as a team and put our best foot forward”
After failing to name him in the squad to tour South Africa this summer, Pivac said of Morgan: "I had a good chat to Jac around what we want him to do in the off-season and that's a big work-on in terms of what he can do in the strength and conditioning area.
"The game's a really physical game. Where we're going, South Africa, there are a lot of very big men. We've asked him to improve, if he can, in that area of physicality when he's over the ball, being even stronger than he is.”
Ospreys head coach Toby Booth went on to express surprise at Pivac’s reasons for dropping "standout" Morgan, saying: “I’ve had conversations with Wayne around his decisions and I’ve obviously had the conversation around Jac. All I can talk about is the performance that Jac has produced for us.
“He’s been one of our standout players, probably along with Rhys Webb, to be fair. They’ve been two of our standout players all year.
“Jac is in the top three for tackles completed (in the URC), he’s in the top three for dominant tackles and he’s in the top three for breakdown steals. Wayne knows what he wants to do in South Africa and what sort of game he plays.
“All I can comment on is that I know Jac will use it as fuel to get better. All he can control is what he does next. From a performance point of view in URC he’s been one of our standout players.”
“Am I surprised? Yeah, I suppose I am, really. It’s Wayne’s decision. Wayne has his reasons and so those questions are really for him."
Ospreys prop leaves after seven years
Ma'afu Fia is leaving the Ospreys after seven seasons with the region
The tighthead prop has been on loan with Bath in the English Premiership since February, having featured for the Ospreys just twice before that this season. The 32-year initially signed for the Ospreys in 2015, going on to make over 100 appearances.
“I am grateful for the support I always had from the Ospreys supporters during my time in Swansea," he said.
“I made some good friends and really appreciated the support from everyone for the Tongan Earthquake appeal to help my fellow countrymen and women back home in Tonga.”
Wales' summer games behind paywall
Wales' three summer rugby Tests against South Africa will only be shown on Sky Sports, with no live Welsh language coverage on S4C.
Sky Sports confirmed the news on Tuesday after winning the rights to all the series involving the home nations back in March. It had been hoped S4C would be able to provide their own Welsh language-only coverage after talks were held in recent weeks. A highlights package remains a possibility.
S4C have been able to show Wales football matches in Welsh in recent years, despite Sky Sports' "exclusive" UK rights in English, but no such situation exists for the rugby.
It means Wales matches will be entirely behind a paywall, with no live Welsh language provision. In the past couple of years, Amazon Prime Video have shown Wales' autumn rugby matches. In 2020 they struck a deal with S4C to broadcast the games in Welsh before ditching that last year and offering their own Welsh language coverage instead.
Aussie wing fires warning shot to England
Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete has fired a warning to Eddie Jones' England, insisting a year in Japan has only made him better.
Koroibete just helped Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights defeat Suntory Sungoliath, for whom England coach Jones has a consultancy role with, in Sunday's Japan Rugby League One final. Following his success, he is expected to be one of three overseas-based players in Australia coach Dave Rennie's squad to face England in a three-Test tour this summer.
"It will be a good experience. I will bring back a lot. I'm looking forward to it," Koroibete said from Japan, before adding what the move had helped him improve in his game. "Getting my detail right.
"I've been working on my catch and pass, my decision-making under pressure. I have been given a licence to play what's in front of me. It's great. I've been given the freedom to roam on the field."
"He called me and we've been chatting about how I'm liking Japan and how the rugby is going," Koroibete said when asked about Rennie.
"We had a conversation if I am still keen to come over and play in the England series. It will be good to go back and visit Australia."
Koroibete's club coach in Japan, former Wallabies boss Robbie Deans, expects Koroibete to cause England some problems.
"He loves to play and the ball in his hands. If he doesn't have the ball in his hands, he finds a way to attack the game anyway," Deans said.
"Players want passionate people, enthusiastic people, positive people and Marika is all of the above."
Former Scotland star questions potential call-up
John Barclay has questioned Jack Dempsey’s potential switch to play for Scotland under World Rugby’s new eligibility laws.
Capped players are now allowed to switch allegiance as long as they have spent the previous three years out of the international game and have “a close and credible link via birthright” to the country they are switching to. The idea was to strengthen Tier 2 nations that have seen players opt for traditionally stronger countries.
It would, however, also free up Glasgow No. 8 Dempsey, who has won 14 caps for Australia, to play for Scotland. However, former Scotland and Scarlets flanker Barclay isn't sure whether such a move would be in the spirit of the law amendment.
“I’ve said before that I don’t think that’s what this rule is for,” he told the Scotsman. “For me, it’s to help Tier 2 nations bring players back who have left at a young age to contribute to a Tier 2 nation in a rugby sense.
“I never saw this rule as a means of Tier 1 nations going to other Tier 1 nations. It’s a bit of a strange situation where you play for Australia for a number of years and then you can qualify to play for Scotland.
“As a player, he’s fantastic but I think Scotland have got a lot of good back-rowers so it is a big decision. If you look at the team, it is littered with guys who have qualified on residency, guys who have come over with grandparents who are Scottish.
“That’s the nature of the game now and we can’t bemoan Scotland’s lack of depth at times without then saying let’s look to use every avenue open to us.”
