Whilst Wales ended unwanted records, so Jac Morgan’s wait for a Test match win with Wales goes on. The last time he tasted victory with the national side in a competitive contest came against Australia in Lyon at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Albeit, since that tournament in France, he has won two games with Wales, uncapped fixtures against the Barbarians. But this summer, with testing matches against Fiji, Argentina, and South Africa, will the wait go on for another Test win for Wales?
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During the period without winning with Wales, the 26-year-old played for the British and Irish Lions, but that summer Wales ended a torrid run of 18 straight Test match defeats in Kobe against Japan.
His last international came against Argentina, when the 26-year-old dislocated his left shoulder in the act of scoring a try against Los Pumas. With the lengthy absence from the Wales set-up, Morgan has missed out on his national side’s progression under head coach Steve Tandy.
In that period, Wales recorded a narrow victory over Japan six days later, ending a 10-Test losing streak at Principality Stadium dating back to the World Cup warm-up against England in 2023.
Morgan watched from the stands as Wales ended a three-year Six Nations losing streak with a bonus-point victory against Italy in Cardiff, despite returning for the Ospreys seven days later.
When questioned about what it’s been like watching Wales during the eight Tests he had missed through injury, Morgan praised Wales’ progression under Tandy.
“It’s been great to be able to watch (the progression),” said Morgan.
“You can just see how the game plan, and how Steve and the coaches want to implement the game coming through.
“You could see during the Six Nations, especially how every game, the boys were building, getting better every game, and improving.
“You could really see the identity that we were trying to bring through. I always want to be out on the field, but it was great to be able to watch the boys play.
“I thought they did a brilliant job, pretty chuffed to be back in camp with everyone.”
While being sidelined, Morgan had to watch on as Wales fell to their second-worst defeat in their history against South Africa, as they also finished pointless that afternoon.
After that humiliation, Wales then shipped 102 points in matches against England and France. This was followed by Wales finding green shoots in their game and delivering respectable performances against Scotland and Ireland before achieving that desired Six Nations win.
All of a sudden, Welsh rugby found an identity. So what’s the difference between the November internationals and the three Test matches this summer?
“I’ve noticed a big difference,” continued Morgan. “Unfortunately, I was only there for the first week or two under Steve and everybody (when we played Argentina).
“It was early days back then, but you can really tell how much this group has grown over the last few months, and trying to play the way that the coaches want us to play.
“As a group, you can see how that’s implemented into our game plan, and how we want to play.
“There’s so much growth. The exciting thing we have got a lot of growth to come as well.”
Ahead of the Nations Championship, which gets underway for Wales in an ‘away’ fixture at the Cardiff City Stadium against Fiji, Wales put aside the Barbarians 33-31 at Allianz Stadium.
This came after the morale-boosting win against The Azzurri in March, and Wales now has a huge summer ahead. “We got everything that we needed (from the game),” added Morgan, whose side, following facing Fiji, travel to San Juan, before travelling across five time zones to Durban for their last Test of the summer.
“It was a good game, it was a tough game, and it was good to get that win. That’s one of the most exciting things about playing against the Barbarians.
“There were some great players in that team. You never know how they’re going to play against you, and that’s the challenge in the way to look at yourselves and try to play into your system, and be the best that you can be.
“Against a team like that, with the flair that they have, the individuals they have got, you never know what they are going to bring against us.”
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