Morgan: ‘I couldn’t have wished for better’

“I couldn’t have wished for anything better, to be honest,” says the 24-year-old winger about his comeback in Las Vegas. “There were a few nerves the night before, but nothing I couldn’t deal with. I just pushed it to the back of my head on Day One and gave it everything I had.”
 
That fearless approach clearly worked in his favour, since Morgan marked his return to action with five tries in the city known as America’s Playground. As soon as his first game was out of the way, “it felt like I’d never left.”
 
Previous experience has taught him that when coming back from a long-term injury, he couldn’t take to the field with any doubts. “I just knew I had to throw myself back into it,” he says. “You can’t really try and favour the other leg or anything like that.”
 
Any notion that Morgan’s five tries in Las Vegas was a flash in the pan was quickly dispelled when he scored another five in Vancouver a week later. One of those was a solo stunner against Japan: “The ball came over from Sam Cross and I thought, ‘My ribs are going to get taken out here’, but I managed to brush off the tackler and take their sweeper on the outside. Then it was pedal to the floor and go for it. My speed seems to be there, so that’s all good.”
 
In fact, whilst Morgan’s top speeds in the United States were nearly as high as those recorded pre-injury, the aim is to get him faster. If his rehabilitation process is anything to go by, this should be a realistic aim. Wales Sevens physio Gary Ahmed, who was with Morgan throughout the rehab process, describes the winger’s indefatigable appetite for improvement: “Luke did absolutely everything and anything we asked him to do. He was always up for doing extras and nothing was going to get in the way of him getting back out on the pitch.”
 
Morgan might have snuck in a couple more tries in North America but for the fact that his playing time was being carefully managed by the coaches. However, more important to him than scoring tries – he now has a record 73 for Wales – was being back in the team environment.
 
“I’ve spent close to eight months training separately from the boys,” he reflects. “I was back in camp two or three weeks before we went away to Vegas, and it was just great to be back in that ‘teulu’ atmosphere we’ve got. It was spot on.”
 
In Vancouver a fortnight ago, Wales missed out on the Cup quarter-finals due to Argentina’s shock defeat of Fiji with a 16th minute conversion. “The boys were really gutted about that. We actually didn’t watch the Argentina game because we were in the showers,” Morgan says. “We came back out and the coaches told us the result. We thought it was a joke at first, but that is the nature of sevens.”
 
Thanks to five wins from six in Canada, Wales were still able to clinch the Challenge Trophy – a deserved piece of silverware after some superb showings this season. “It was good to finish on a high,” is how Morgan puts it.
 
“I can’t wait for Hong Kong now,” he says of the showpiece event which takes place in early April. “We’ve got a tough two weeks ahead to keep us ticking over in between tournaments. There are some new boys coming into camp, which will push the boys even harder to be named in the squad for Hong Kong and Singapore.”
 
At the Hong Kong Stadium, Wales will be pitted against New Zealand, Fiji and Japan in Pool C. “That’s two of the best teams in the world we’re competing against, so it should be a good couple of days,” says Morgan. “Every game’s hard in sevens, so we’ll take it as it comes. The crowd is absolutely amazing in Hong Kong. It’s full for every single game and you get a great buzz from it.”
 
Fresh from his enforced break, Hong Kong clearly can’t come soon enough for Wales’ very own comeback kid: “I’m making up for lost time, so I can’t wait to get back out there on the pitch.”
 
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