He may be the only Welshman left on the British & Irish Lions tour, but Jac Morgan is making a major impact.
The Wales and Ospreys captain capped a man of the match performance in the 52-12 triumph over Queensland Reds in Brisbane with a try as he completed a full 80-minute effort to make it two from two for the tourists on Aussie soil.
His star showing included nine carries, three turnovers, 21 tackles and 49 metres carrying to impress the 46,435-strong crowd at the same venue at which the first of the three Tests will be played on 19 July.
“If he plays like he did today, he can play wherever he wants. He was everywhere – his offloading game was great, and he was aggressive with his hitting,” said a hugely impressed Lions head coach Andy Farrell.
“He’ll be delighted. It wasn’t a flowing game, although when we got going, we did play some good stuff.
“Our collision work was good and that helped us keep them out in the second half – we’ll always have constant learnings. We weren’t happy with the start of our game, but we started a little bit better in the second half.
“The quality of the bench and the example that the benches have set in the other two games has been top draw. Competition for places, that’s what we’re after, isn’t it? And everyone’s got to play right through to the final whistle.”
Morgan’s try came in the second half after the Lions had negotiated a tricky opening against the second best of the four Australian Super Rugby Pacific sides. The Reds struck first through prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen in the seventh minute and added a second from centre Josh Flook in the 25th.
But the Lions led 21-12 at the break thanks to tries from Tommy Freeman, Andrew Porter and Duhan van der Merwe and went on to add five more after the break. They also managed to stop the Reds from scoring for the final 54 minutes.
In the previous game against the Western Force they kept them pointless for 74 minutes after conceding an early try and the defensive displays to date – Morgan was the top tackler in his side with his 21 – have been very good.
It was the second time that Morgan had operated in tandem with England’s Tom Curry on the flanks of the Lions scrum. This time they had the huge presence of Jack Conan at No 8 to help them.
Curry is capable of operating on the openside as well, while Morgan also faces competition from Ireland’s No 7 Josh van der Flier and England’s young tyro Henry Pollock. But if he can build on his two performances to date, he will have a great chance of competing for a Test place.
“It was a good game, a very physical game, especially the first half. It was a tough match, so it was good to get the win,” said Morgan.
“It was a full team performance. We spoke before the game about playing for the full 80 minutes and that is what we did.
“We kept on building, and we will keep on building over the next couple of weeks. Now we will look at the game and then ahead to Sydney.”
Lions skipper Maro Itoje gave his side a huge boost at the start of the second half when he powered over five minutes after the restart. Morgan then got in on the act before Freeman got his second and Huw Jones and Garry Ringrose carried the Lions past the half-century mark of the second game in a row.