Wayne Pivac has handed starts in the Wales back row to 15 players since taking over from Warren Gatland as national coach, but he has strangely ignored a forward who has been as consistent as anyone.
According to the United Rugby Championship statistics at the time of writing, Morgan Morris has made more ball carries (126) and beaten more defenders (26) than any other Wales-qualified player in the URC this season.
He has also put in 125 tackles with a 93 percent completion rate and won 15 turnovers, a total exceeded only by his Ospreys team-mate Jac Morgan (19) when it comes to Welsh players.
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Morris isn’t going to leave his mobile phone on all night to make sure he doesn’t miss a call from Pivac and he isn’t going to spend every waking hour reflecting on perceived injustices, because that isn’t the modest Swansea-born player's style.
But the try hat-trick he scored in the Ospreys' 50-31 win over the Dragons on Sunday was another reminder to Wales' head coach of his quality. Playing at No. 8, Morris again showed he knows how to finish. He also covers a lot of ground, is good in defence and uses his openside skills to contest ball at the breakdown.
Ospreys head coach Toby Booth said the youngster's ability to take opportunities deep in opposition territory called to mind an England international who made the 2021 Lions tour.
“He reminds me of Sam Simmonds at Exeter,” said Booth.
“He’s very similar in relation to how he plays the game. You have to convert pressure into points and he’s a guy who does that. He has that influence for us on the attacking side and what’s good is that he’s getting some jackals as well.
“So he’s developing on both sides of the ball.
“He’s a good ball carrier. It doesn’t matter what you create sometimes, someone has to get it over the line and Morgan’s very good in that area.”
Simmonds is a try machine who crossed the opposition line 19 times in the Gallagher Premiership last season. Morris has some way to go to match those kind of deeds, but it’s his all-round game that impresses, with the former Swansea RFC player rarely far from the action.
The 23-year-old has also been delivering consistently since breaking through into the Ospreys two years ago.
With Jac Morgan, Dewi Lake, Will Griffiths, Harri Deaves and Rhys Davies, he’s part of a core of young Welsh forwards who could serve the south-west Wales region well for years. You can read more about Morgan here.
Working for Premier Sports, Shane Williams backed Morris’ claims to tour South Africa with Wales this summer.
“Morgan Morris has put his hand up today to go on the summer tour,” said Williams.
“If you ask me, he should have been there (in the Wales set-up), perhaps, 18 months ago.
“He is a good, good player who doesn’t not perform.
“Scrum halves look for him. and he's strong. With his upper body strength, he takes two defenders out of the game every time. Not only the hat-trick, I thought his efforts in defence were fantastic, while I don’t know how many times he had his hands on the ball.”
The Ospreys have one more game left to play this season, against the Bulls a week on Friday. Another good performance from Morris would further strengthen his Wales claims.
His form demands that Pivac and Humphreys watch him closely.
