LONG READ Morgan Morse: 'My favourite position is at 8. I pick up confidence the more I carry.'

Summer months can be less enjoyable if a few sharp rocks are wedged under your beach towel, World Cup-winning coach Steve Hansen once noted. As a heavy-duty philosophical offering, the line may not be up there with some of Socrates or Aristotle’s greatest hits, but, still, many rugby players will know where the New Zealander was coming from.

It’s not always possible, after all, to finish a campaign blazing all guns.

Step forward, Morgan Morse, not so long ago a wild flavour of the month in Welsh rugby but left out of two successive national squads after winning a couple of senior caps last autumn. Also, the back-rower didn’t play a game for the Ospreys after March 28, a campaign that began with such promise petering out, not altogether matching the predictions of many.

And the wheel keeps turning. A new list of ‘nine new players who have got Wales coaches very excited’ has seeped into public consciousness via a prominent website; Kane James has been drafted into Steve Tandy’s plans; the tag of Welsh rugby’s ‘most exciting prospect’ is these days pushed the way of someone else.

But Morse? We’ll say he has been operating incognito in recent times, leaving headlines to others. That’s what you get for failing to produce five miracles in 10 minutes on your Test debut. It’s a tough old world.

But don’t forget about him. One pathway insider who’s been close to the programme for the past decade continues to remember his input with no small degree of awe: “Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan were outstanding as emerging players, but if you were ranking Welsh kids over the past 10 years in terms of potential, Morgan Morse would be right up there with them.”

The sun is beating down at the Ospreys’ training base in Llandarcy. It is a day for whatever shade can be found and for heading home quickly after drills have been completed and showers taken. Morse seems happy enough to negotiate the media assignment that has been bolted onto his shift, though.

He hasn’t done many one-on-one interviews, with press officers doing their best to shield him from hype during his time in age-group rugby, but he settles down and is patient enough to wait while this writer spends a couple of minutes sorting out a problem with his microcassette recorder – a metre or six of sellotape ludicrously affixed to the back of the device wasn’t conducive to recording, since you asked.

But we’re good to go and Morse is keen to stress he can’t wait for the campaign to start. His personal goals? “I just want to play as much as I can and when I do get a chance to play, I want to enjoy it and hopefully perform well, because the more I play the more confidence I get,” he says. “I just want to make the most of every chance I get.” We’ll class that opening response as the equivalent of a forward-defensive stroke in cricket, safe and without risks.

But what about something a bit more ambitious? Dare a player who faces a tough enough challenge to secure a place in his club back row contemplate adding to his Wales caps? “I don’t want to look too far ahead,” he says. “But, yeah, it would be good to be involved again. I definitely want more – every player would.

It was probably the toughest period of my journey so far. I wasn’t injured. I just came back from the Welsh camp and found it hard to get a game.

“But we’ll see what happens. My first goal is to play more for the Ospreys and try to put together some good, consistent performances. Regional level is where it starts.”

The initial challenge, then, will be to reset the compass after last term’s off-course finish: “It was probably the toughest period of my journey so far. I wasn’t injured. I just came back from the Welsh camp and found it hard to get a game.”

Such is the way of the world. Sporting careers rarely run along straight lines: even the most celebrated are not unfamiliar with the odd detour. All would have found at an early age that reaction is key, rather than the setback itself. As Coldplay once noted, possibly not about holding down a place in the Ospreys back row, nobody said it was easy. It requires effort on a significant scale. But, of course, Morse, switched on and with three A-levels burnishing his CV, knows all this.

He will understand, too, that even after the departure of Jac Morgan, competition in the region’s back row will be hot, hot, hot over the months ahead. One potential Ospreys team for 2026-27 had Ross Moriarty, Liam Wright and Morgan Morris as the frontline loose-forward trio, but a unit of James Ratti, Harri Deaves and Morse wouldn’t do a bad job, either, while youngster Gwilym Evans will want to make an impression.

“We all bring something different, which is good because it means we can learn off each other and improve the team,” says Morse. “The competition will make us better.”

The question for the 21-year-old is where he sees himself figuring. Some doubt that he is big enough to play at No. 8, but at 6ft 1in and 16st 9lb he is built along similar lines to Ben Earl and – understatement ahoy – the Saracen hasn’t exactly had a bad career.

“My favourite position would be 8,” says Morse. “Playing there, I can get into the game more because there are extra chances to take the ball forward.

“I pick up confidence the more I carry, but I’d also like to be able to cover openside. It’s slightly different playing there, with the breakdown work and stuff, but that’s OK. I’d like to be comfortable to play both, but 8 is my preferred position.”

The Ospreys are a post-Jac Morgan zone these days, of course, with the openside and Wales skipper Lake having left for Gloucester. The consistently impressive Daniel Kasende has also moved on, plus the creative Jack Walsh and the promising James Fender. Imports include Wright and fellow Australians Lalakai Foketi and Lawson Creighton, with Tom Rogers, Dan John and loan signing Harri Wilde also booking in. The Ospreys were also linked with Marika Koroibete.

Because Jac [Morgan] is four or five years older than I am, I didn’t really see much of him when he was with Cwmtwrch, but I’d heard about him from boys at the club, who talked highly of him.

“Some important players have left but some quality boys have come in,” says Morse. “The Australians are really good blokes off the pitch and obviously good when it comes to rugby. They’ve picked up the detail quickly.”

A fresh dynamic, then, albeit no-one is underplaying how much Morgan and Lake will be missed, off the pitch as well as on. “Both of them were good mates with us all, with the same going for Kasende and the others,” says Morse. “But we have a lot of boys who can fit in well in those roles.”

Morse hails from the same club as Morgan, Cwmtwrch RFC, the Swansea Valley outfit with famed links to rugby royalty in the shape of the late, great Clive Rowlands. “Because Jac is four or five years older than I am, I didn’t really see much of him when he was with Cwmtwrch, but I’d heard about him from boys at the club, who talked highly of him,” says Morse. “At the Ospreys, like everyone, I got on well with him and with Dewi.”

The youngster from Rhiwfawr has joined the ranks of property owners of late, moving out of his parents’ home to acquire a place of his own. Adapting to solo flight is no easy challenge. “It is a bit weird being on my own,” he admits. But ties with home are far from broken, with Mam still helping out with the laundry pending the arrival of a washing machine in son Morgan’s new base.

And there are still tight bonds with the local rugby club. A senior Cwmtwrch figure once described the trek up the steep hill that leads to the pitch as “like climbing to heaven”. When his Ospreys commitments allow, Morse is more than keen to while away an afternoon in such ethereal surroundings, watching long-time pals play.

“I live only five minutes away, so I see the boys play quite a bit,” says Morse. “If the Ospreys haven’t got a game or are not away, I’ll go up there and run the water on.

“I also go to the training sometimes, as a lot of my old mates play for them, boys I’ve known since we started school.

“Tips has been great. It helps that he played in the back row, where I play. I review my game with him every week and he gives me pointers on how to get better.”

“They’re a great club, on and off the field, and it means a lot to have come through there.”

At the Ospreys, Morse is fortunate to be able to tap into the coaching expertise of two former Wales captains in Duncan Jones and Justin Tipuric, plus the respected Richard Kelly. With his deep knowledge of back-row play, the 93-cap Tipuric is a particular help – of course he is.

“Tips has been great,” says Morse. “It helps that he played in the back row, where I play. I review my game with him every week and he gives me pointers on how to get better.”

Are there any players the Ystalyfera school product bases his rugby upon? “I don’t know about modelling my game on anyone, but I see someone like Ben Earl and he’s a similar build to me. I try to be quite agile and fast off the base as a carrier. Earl is good at what he does and is someone I like to watch.”

Morse has also come across another prominent England backrower in Henry Pollock, the pair facing each other at U20 level in 2024, when the Red Rose youngsters ran out 28-7 winners against their Welsh counterparts, with Pollock featuring at openside, Morse at No. 8.

“I just remember the cameras were on him constantly. Every time I looked up at the big screen he was on it. But, to be fair, he played well. I took the ball forward for my first carry and he stripped it off me, which fired me up a bit. But, no, he’s a good player.”

All that remains is to ask about the politics currently blighting the game in Wales and how much the uncertainty over the Ospreys’ future is affecting players, with one region in the west set to be cut. Morse is one of many local players in the Ospreys set-up, with Dan Edwards, Morgan Morris, Owen Watkin, Keiran Williams and Reuben Morgan-Williams among the others. “The Ospreys mean a huge amount to us all,” says Morse.

The politics isn’t a big talking point among the boys, probably because we hear so much about it. We try to focus on the rugby. We are moving down to a new base in St Helen’s and that gives us a big focus.

“They definitely mean a lot to me. I grew up supporting the region, when Tips and people like Fuss (Richard Fussell), Ma’afu Fia, James King and Lyds (Dan Lydiate) were playing. I used to go to every home game.

“The politics isn’t a big talking point among the boys, probably because we hear so much about it. We try to focus on the rugby. We are moving down to a new base in St Helen’s and that gives us a big focus. We are putting in the work to try to perform for the fans.

“Getting back in that top eight in the URC is a goal and then seeing what happens. Europe is another one. It would be good to do well in that.”

The mind drifts back to France pummelling Wales 67-17 at U20 level in 2023. The clock was well into the red with Wales 50 points adrift when the then schoolboy Morse ran 80 metres in pursuit of a kick upfield, shoving a French player when he arrived on the scene. The gulf between the two teams that day was frightening, but Morse distinguished himself as the ship went down.

“There’s a certain attitude to playing rugby,” the ex-Wales U20s coach Patrick Horgan told me at the time. “Morse showed it and has a big future. If he develops fully, he could go all the way — Wales, even the British and Irish Lions. I just liked the way he put his heart and soul into every single thing.”

The senior game is a step up and Morse is still settling.

Maybe the hype lens focusing on others right now will be a good thing.

Patience might be required.

But nothing has happened over the past year to alter the view that Welsh rugby has a significant talent on its hands in Morse.

Expect him to prove a figure of substance in the seasons ahead.