Ask a maths student and they’ll tell you sevens into fifteen don’t go, but Luke Morgan is out to smash that thinking with his meteoric rise through the ranks.
As Wales stormed to Six Nations Grand Slam glory in 2008, a 16-year-old Luke Morgan watched on enthralled from high up in the Principality Stadium stands.
Below him, Morgan’s hero Shane Williams scorched the Cardiff turf and a capacity crowd roared on Warren Gatland’s side. At the time, taking to the field himself would have been a fantasy for Morgan. A decade later, the now
Ospreys back will make his childhood dream a reality when he makes his Wales debut against Scotland this afternoon.
“I went to watch Wales a lot during the years they were very successful,” Morgan said, relaxing on a sofa at Wales’ Vale of Glamorgan base. “I remember the 2008 Grand Slam very well.
“I watched those games with my grandfather from the stands. He took me along as I was a lot younger then, but the experience of those atmospheres will always stay with me.
“They were just unreal. For me to be on the other side of that now is out of this world.”
Morgan isn’t the first boyhood Welsh rugby fan to graduate to his country’s senior side and he won’t be the last. The 26-year-old’s recent story, though, is certainly remarkable.
This season is former Wales Sevens superstar Morgan’s first full campaign in 15-a-side rugby. His rise has been stratospheric. In July, Morgan represented Wales at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco and before the tournament, it was confirmed he would be joining the Ospreys this term.
In just a few short months, he has gone from a novice in the full form of the game to a regular in the Guinness PRO14, a prolific try-scorer, and now a full Wales international.
The man himself, by his own admission, can’t believe it.
“Since the Sevens World Cup things have progressed very, very quickly,” Morgan said. “This is my first season in 15-a-side rugby. I played for Wales Under-20, but coming back from Wales Sevens things have gone a lot better than how I thought they would.
“I told myself to give it everything and if it didn’t work, then I had sevens to fall back on. Luckily it’s gone through the roof. I’ve only had five or six games for the Ospreys and now I’m in the Wales squad. As far as I’m concerned everything has gone well so far and hopefully that can continue. It’s been a good couple of months for me and hopefully there can be another good month to come.” Morgan might be new to the Wales set-up and also a fresh face at regional level, but he also has plenty of experience on the big stage.
He has represented his country in sevens at two Commonwealth Games, was only deprived of a place at the 2016
Olympics with Team GB by a serious knee injury, and has been a regular on World Rugby’s Sevens series, playing at huge venues all over the world.
In 202 matches for Wales in rugby’s shorter format, Morgan scored a remarkable 131 tries. It makes him Wales’ record holder in sevens, both in terms of tries and total points scored.
Now he plans on transferring his skills to the full Test arena. Morgan’s combination of raw pace and lightning-quick feet are sure to make him a nightmare for Scotland this afternoon.
“It was a hard decision for me to leave the sevens, but I’d been playing it for five years. I’d been to two Commonwealth Games and just missed out on an Olympics,” Morgan said.
“I felt I’d done pretty much everything I wanted to in the sport, I wanted a new challenge, and the opportunity came up with the Ospreys. I feel I’ve progressed a lot since I’ve joined them.
“I’m only 26 now and hopefully I’ve still got a few years ahead of me. I’d never rule out going back to sevens totally, but for now it’s 15s and 15s only. I want to try and take that forward.”
Morgan, like any modern-day rugby player, has had his fair share of ups and downs. It makes him appreciate where he is currently.
“It was a massive blow for me to miss the Rio Olympics. It was all going very well for me in 2016, but I injured my knee the day before the squad was going to be confirmed,” he reflected.
“It was an anterior cruciate ligament injury. To know I was pretty much going to be heading to Rio and then to have it all taken away from me was the darkest time of my life so far, not just in rugby. “But I got over that and two years down the line, look where I am now. At the time it was one of the worst things which could have happened to me, but I look back now and it doesn’t seem too bad.”
Morgan has taken to the PRO14 like a duck to water. For the Ospreys he’s scored superb individual tries against the Scarlets and Pau already this term. In fairness to him, crossing the whitewash has been an almost constant theme over the course of his career. Prior to establishing with Wales Sevens, Morgan burst on to the scene with 17 tries for Principality Premiership side Bridgend in the 2011-12 season. Four more tries for Wales at Under-20 level that year also marked him out as one to watch. This is a man with full belief in his abilities. Scotland are next on his radar.
“I’ve never played at Principality Stadium. I trained there once with Wales Sevens, so it will be a new experience for me,” Morgan said. “With Wales Sevens we played at some great grounds and with huge crowds. I think those experiences will help me a lot in terms of dealing with the crowd and the pressure that comes with an international Test match. I think it will mean I’m a bit less nervous come the game.
“I can’t wait to run out at Principality Stadium with the roof closed and 75,000 people cheering us on. I think it will be pretty special for me to experience that.
“I’m sure my emotions will be all over the shop, but it will be the pinnacle of my career to run out there. What I need to make sure I do is take my chance when the game begins.
“The positive side of my game is having the ball in hand and running with it. I always back myself, don’t hold back, and I’m going to be hungry whenever I get the ball. My plan is to try and turn a few heads and hopefully I can do it.”
As the 2019 World Cup looms ever closer into view, Wales head coach Gatland has an ever-burgeoning wealth of back three riches from which to pick.
Established faces Leigh Halfpenny, Liam Williams and George North are all still key men. Then there are young guns Steffan Evans, Hallam Amos and Josh Adams.
For the 2018 Under Armour Series, Gatland has also summoned Morgan and fellow new boy Jonah Holmes of Leicester into his squad. There is Owen Lane, too, who is currently out injured.
“The Wales set-up is a totally different environment to what I’ve been used to, but I’ve been getting up to speed on the intensity of training which is through the roof,” Morgan said. “It was a totally different level with all the new kit we got for starters. It was all there lying out for you on your first day with your initials on it and everything. It was great to receive mine!
“The first few weeks were tough for me. There is obviously a lot more to learn and I felt a bit alienated at first, but with the good coaching staff we have and the players around me, I literally felt it all click one day. From there it’s been a case of trying to improve each day.
“If you’d asked me about the World Cup this time last year I’d have said no chance. Now I am where I am it’s obviously going to be something that’s in the back of my mind, but I’m just taking it slowly at the moment. I want to try and have a good game against Scotland and build on that.
“If I can do that in the rest of the autumn series, then it’s the Six Nations and then hopefully the summer and the World Cup. It would be a dream to be a part of that.”
This afternoon Morgan will closely follow his former Wales Sevens team-mate and Ospreys colleague Sam Cross in making the step up to Gatland’s side.
As he takes to the field, those memories of 2008 will all come flooding back. What price him emulating his hero Williams with a try? That would certainly amount to fairy tale stuff.
“It might be a bit of a cliché, but Shane was the one I looked up to as a young player,” Morgan said. “The career he had was just amazing. He wasn’t the biggest and neither am I. The way he lit up the field whenever he played was something which really stood out for me. He was the one who spiked my interest in rugby and now I’m emulating him by playing for Wales. It’s just crazy.”
This interview is part of today’s official WRU match programme for Wales v Scotland in the Under Armour Series.
