The gifted Morgan has had few chances to show his attacking flair in his preferred position of fly half as Dan Bigger has pulled the strings expertly from No 10.
The Italians have yet to win a game this season and if Morgan and co produce the cutting edge they displayed over the festive period where they shredded the Scarlets with a consummate display before showing plenty of grit and determination to win at the Dragons, Zebre could be in for a long night.
An excited Ospreys head coach Steve Tandy, said: “I’m looking forward to seeing Matthew at 15. He’ll give us attacking options, we know what he can do with ball in hand. We’ve got to look at different options because we have a relatively small squad and having him and Dan on the pitch together is something to look forward to.”
with the two festive wins under their belt, the Ospreys have moved up into fifth place on the points table to build up a head of steam into 2013.
“We’ve built up some good momentum over the last few weeks which have put us in a decent place in terms of pushing into the top four of the PRO12 and keeping our European hopes alive. We mustn’t let that hard work and effort go to waste now though, and it’s important that we perform well against Zebre on Friday night,” explained Tandy.
“As with any Italian team they are a tough, physical bunch and going into the game on the back of two Welsh derbies in five days we need to use the squad as much as we can for this one. We know that they will make life difficult for us but we have to focus on our own game, and concentrate on what we need to do to ensure we get the performance levels we expect from the group.”
Wales front row Adam Jones takes over the captaincy for the Ospreys against a side which has selected an entirely new backline as the Italians look to overturn the 34-16 defeat they suffered in Parma earlier in the season.
