It's time for the Hurricanes to hand the keys to Aidan Morgan
The Hurricanes have made tough calls in the past about the direction of the franchise.
Mark Hammett was bold enough to push Ma’a Nonu out of the building, one of the best midfielders of all-time. It didn’t work out all that well, but he had the guts to make the call and make a change.
When Beauden Barrett and Aaron Cruden were on the Hurricanes roster in 2011, they made the decision to say goodbye to Cruden and gave Barrett the job.
Barrett was 20-years-old when the Hurricanes made the call to invest in him with the starting role, along with TJ Perenara at halfback, where the pair could build experience together. The investment paid off five years later with the franchise’s first Super Rugby title in 2016.
The Hurricanes young first five Aidan Morgan is the same age now as Barrett was then.
Particularly at the first five position, using multiple players has never worked. Every winning Super Rugby team has had a dynamic 10 in charge and they start every week without question and without internal competition.
In recent years, the Highlanders had Lima Sopoaga, the Hurricanes had Beauden Barrett, the Chiefs had Aaron Cruden. They weren’t looking over their shoulders, they had the job.
The clubs backed them early, stuck with them and titles came from 2012 to 2016 for those three teams.
Through this early 2010s era when all those three teams all won titles, the Crusaders had instability at the position in comparison. At the tail end of his career, Carter was oft injured then tried at 12 alongside Tom Taylor and Colin Slade. They were all rotated around and they didn’t get the ultimate reward despite coming close in two finals.
Only when they settled on the emerging young talent of Richie Mo’unga and stuck with him did they start to win titles again, his first coming at 22-years-old.
The history of Super Rugby shows that young dynamic 10s, not experienced first fives, lead teams to titles.
Morgan has shown flashes of the same attributes all the previous title winning first fives have had in his limited action so far: a dynamic running game, speed and elusiveness, vision, and passing skills. He is the natural attacking talent needed to spark the best of a side.
Under pressure, Morgan has been exceptional at finding a way to keep the ball moving, whilst taking the closing defender out of the picture.
Despite Moana Pasifika making the right read on this screen by the Hurricanes, Morgan’s quick hands found Ruben Love with a chance on the right edge.
Unfortunately Love’s pass was forward but Morgan showed his deft touch on more than one occasion in his two starts against Moana Pasifika.
Receiving a pass rolling behind a forward pod, Morgan put flanker Reed Prinsep into a gap which was a try scoring opportunity had one more pass been made. On the stroke of halftime the exact same pattern led to a try for Wes Goosen.
His touch and passing skills are special, with an ability to ball play at the line and create opportunities for the players around him.
The zip in his running game makes him a threat for the defence to try and shut down and the pass can still be made in contact.
Morgan has the benefit of youthful athleticism that puts him in position to make things happen. His speed in support play is a huge asset which can see him cover large ground to be in position to take a support pass.
From this blindside raid, Morgan starts a good twenty metres behind wing Wes Goosen but is there off his shoulder to take a potential pass down the field. He works hard off-the- ball to maximise the broken field opportunities for his team.
After a Ruben Love line break, it was Morgan there in support to keep the play alive and then link with TJ Perenara.
His support play has already paid dividends for the Hurricanes, when he came off the bench in Dunedin to score the try that essentially won the game against the Highlanders.
It was a line out play that found space for Salesi Rayasi on the left edge, and it was Morgan backing up in support to take the decisive offload to score in the corner.
Morgan has had three starts this year, two against Moana Pasifika and one against the Reds. What he has shown in those matches is enough to take over the role full time.
It is quite clear that Aidan Morgan and Ruben Love are the future, but they should also be the present right now.
The worst thing the Hurricanes could do is waste these years from 20-to-25 years old where they have all their physical tools and youthful athleticism to give their best.
Organisations can get paralysed by indecision and fail to make the tough calls needed to get where they want to go.
If the Hurricanes simply want to win more games and score more points, Morgan is the 10 that needs to be on the park for the majority of the eighty minutes each week.
The faster the Hurricanes make this call, the sooner they will be back in title contention around a young dynamic 10 that has all the tools to succeed in Super Rugby.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments