20 -Year-old number 8 Morgan Strong has been making big strides in his development while playing with the Bridgend Ravens. The Wales U20’s star is on the Ospreys books but was given the chance to play in the Premiership with the Ravens last season.
On his time with the club he said, “Playing for Bridgend in the Prem last year was a huge learning curve for me as a young player in my first season of senior rugby. It was a great achievement to play for my hometown in Wales’ top league of rugby, and to have the chance to play regular rugby each weekend at this standard was massive for me.”
Strong spoke about how important the Senior players in the Ravens squad were in helping his development. “Playing with some of the players in the squad last year was hugely beneficial to me, plays like Gar Harvey, Ben Davies, Nath (Edwards) and so on made it an enjoyable season. It was always easy to have a chat and they made it easy for me to settle into a new squad. Also, the way they review games and the things they look at helped me as a younger player to see how they look at the game.”
Morgan’s father Nathan is no stranger to Premiership success having played for Bridgend and Pontypridd and Aberavon in the league, lifting the Welsh Cup with the Ponty in 2006. Morgan spoke about his relationship with Nathan, “I have a good relationship with my old man, he comes to watch most of my games and is always there to offer feedback on my performance, and the team’s. He also gives me advice on where he feels I could improve, it’s important to have a good family network around you who will be honest with your performance.”
The Tondu RFC product has been around the Ospreys senior team for the first time this season. “It’s been great to have my first season with the Ospreys, seeing how senior rugby works and how the boys train day in day out. This gives me a good insight into what the future can be like. There are so many big names in the Ospreys pack, Tipuric and Lydiate to name a couple, working with them daily will benefit me hugely. I’m keen to learn as much off people like that as possible, but with not much rugby being played this year the time has been used to develop physically and keep improving my game in training.
Strong starred in Wales’ U20’s Six Nations campaign last year, scoring tries against France and Scotland, and starring in defence. “Playing for Wales U20s last year was huge for not only me but my family, despite having played age grade previously this was my first cap which made it that little bit more special. Being in that sort of environment is very moreish, once you get a taste of it you want it more and more. The most memorable moments for me would be beating France and England, both massive games in front of good crowds which made them great games to be involved in.”
Having not played any Rugby at all so far this season with the Premiership being postponed Strong still remains ambitious, “With the way this season has turned out the only aim for me at the minute is just to get back to playing rugby as soon as possible.”
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