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Toby Booth warns teenager Morgan Morse is far from 'finished product'
By Josh Raisey
Ospreys No8 Morgan Morse bagged what could end up being the try of the United Rugby Championship season on Monday in torrid conditions at Dunraven Brewery Field as his side won a Welsh derby against Cardiff 27-21.
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At 18 years of age, Welsh rugby got a glimmer of what is to come in a player of the match display from the 104kg forward. But as impressive as his solo effort was from 45 metres out, as well as his all round performance, his head coach Toby Booth stressed after the match that there are still areas of his game that the No8 needs to work on.
Having only made his Ospreys debut in November, the 15-cap Wales under-20 international is clearly just on the foothills of a promising career, but the display against rivals Cardiff showed the potential he has in what Booth described as the “next wave” of young players coming through at the club. At the same time, he said after the match that the coaching staff are working on making the teenager a more “complete player”.
“The boy’s quick, right?” Booth said in his post match interview shared by the Ospreys after the win. “We know he’s a talent, like Dan [Edwards] and a lot of the youngsters pushing through now, and we’ll enjoy the next wave. That’s exciting for us. These boys bring loads of energy and it’s great to work with them because they want to learn and they want to get better.
“Morgan Morse, for example, has got great physical capability. Everyone has seen that. You’ve seen that with the under-20s when he played there before. He’s quick, he can beat people, there’s some good people around him to learn off and he’ll be the first to say he’s not the finished product because he’s got some rough edges, particularly on the attacking side of the ball, that we’re working on. If you can get that, you’ll get a more complete player and ultimately he’ll have more of an influence on the game.”
