Luke Morahan's curious trial week in Australia after scoring for Bristol in the Premiership

Bristol’s Luke Morahan is temporarily leaving scoring tries in the Gallagher Premiership behind for a shot at earning a place in the Australia Sevens squad for the Tokyo Olympics. 

Morahan finished up last weekend as a try-scorer in the Bears’ comprehensive win over Gloucester at Ashton Gate and with the club now having a free weekend due to the start of the Six Nations, he has since flown to Sydney for a trial week ahead of next weekend HSBC tournament in the Australian city. 

The winger – a Super Rugby winner in 2011 with the Reds – was part of the Aussie sevens team that won a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and they are thrilled with Bristol’s decision to allow him to try out for the 2020 Games. 

Coach Tim Walsh said: “We’ve been in talks with Luke Morahan for a while and he has talked with great passion about playing for Australia again, especially at the Olympic Games.

“Luke is a great athlete with a smart rugby brain and is well sorted to the versatility of sevens rugby. We’re getting him back into the squad this week to give him an opportunity to put his hand up again for the gold jersey and see what he can contribute on and off the field.

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“Bristol have been very supportive of allowing Luke to step away and chase something that he really wants to do and we thank the club for making him available for this week.”

Morahan added: “Potentially representing my country again is something I’ve thought about for a while, so to be able to re-join the Aussie 7s is really exciting, especially ahead of their home tournament.

“This week is really about a fact-finding mission to see if it’s going to potentially work out for both parties and I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen from the group just today.

“It’s really going to the case of hitting the ground running with a lot to take in but I’m looking forward to getting into the hard work.”

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