Shane Williams tells Pivac he should have picked 'Wales' Sam Simmonds' 18 months ago

Wayne Pivac has handed starts in the Wales back row to 15 players since taking over from Warren Gatland as national coach, but he has strangely ignored a forward who has been as consistent as anyone.

According to the United Rugby Championship statistics at the time of writing, Morgan Morris has made more ball carries (126) and beaten more defenders (26) than any other Wales-qualified player in the URC this season.

He has also put in 125 tackles with a 93 percent completion rate and won 15 turnovers, a total exceeded only by his Ospreys team-mate Jac Morgan (19) when it comes to Welsh players.

Cutting another region solves nothing until archaic WRU is addressed

Morris isn’t going to leave his mobile phone on all night to make sure he doesn’t miss a call from Pivac and he isn’t going to spend every waking hour reflecting on perceived injustices, because that isn’t the modest Swansea-born player's style.

But the try hat-trick he scored in the Ospreys' 50-31 win over the Dragons on Sunday was another reminder to Wales' head coach of his quality. Playing at No. 8, Morris again showed he knows how to finish. He also covers a lot of ground, is good in defence and uses his openside skills to contest ball at the breakdown.

Ospreys head coach Toby Booth said the youngster's ability to take opportunities deep in opposition territory called to mind an England international who made the 2021 Lions tour.

“He reminds me of Sam Simmonds at Exeter,” said Booth.

“He’s very similar in relation to how he plays the game. You have to convert pressure into points and he’s a guy who does that. He has that influence for us on the attacking side and what’s good is that he’s getting some jackals as well.

“So he’s developing on both sides of