Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

It's time for the Hurricanes to hand the keys to Aidan Morgan

(Photos by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images and Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

The Hurricanes have made tough calls in the past about the direction of the franchise.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

Video Spacer

Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 11

Video Spacer

Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 11

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

2 Comments
T
Telepi 930 days ago

I think they should put Ruben Love at 14 with Salesi Rayasi at 11 because they are both good wings and then put Aiden Morgan at first five 8.

A
Andrew 931 days ago

Back in the day 20 yr olds would be in the Colts or senior B learning their craft not fronting provinces.

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

287 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Let's be real about these All Blacks Let's be real about these All Blacks
Search