A youth team coach once told Morgan Strong he wasn’t good enough.
The youngster from Tondu is on record as saying it was the moment that changed everything.
There were no hard feelings towards the coach in question. In fact, Strong was grateful for the wake-up call, for he is someone who listens and acts and uses feedback to improve his game rather than take it personally.
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He is also prepared to make bold calls.
Last summer, the former Wales U20s No. 8 turned down the offer of a new contract with the Ospreys because he wanted to play regular rugby. With the likes of Justin Tipuric, Jac Morgan, Morgan Morris, Dan Lydiate, Ethan Roots, Sam Cross, Will Griffiths, Will Hickey and Harri Deaves on their books, the Ospreys were heavy on quality and personnel in the back row and Strong hadn’t started a competitive game for them, albeit he had been featuring for Bridgend.
Ayway, he made the decision to try his luck in the English Championship with Ampthill.
It was a major move for a lad who proudly sported an Ospreys jersey as a schoolboy, who remembered local heroes from the Bridgend area, Gavin Henson and Lee Byrne, donning the region's black shirt.
But Strong felt a switch was for the better.
Nine months on, he can look back on a campaign in which he has banked six man-of-the-match awards. He’s roughly made the same number of appearances in the Championship team of the week. He’s also skippered Ampthill at the age of 22. It has been a season of significant progress for him.
“It’s been going well,” he said.
“I just felt I had reached a point when I had to be playing every week and I’ve been able to do that at Ampthill. I’ve got everything that I’ve needed out of the season so far, playing 80 minutes week on week. I captained the side against Cornish Pirates in the cup and I’m pushing 20 matches overall in terms of games played, so I can’t complain.
“I do think I’ve improved.
“Being able to play every week in a league like this one does help.
“I enjoyed playing in the Welsh Premiership, but the Championship is a step or two up physicality-wise and when it comes to the size of the players you are playing against.
“Five of the sides in the league are professional. You play Coventry, Jersey, Doncaster, Ealing Trailfinders and Cornish Pirates and you are playing professional sides. Bedford chuck the ball around really well, too. Some of the players from those clubs are big guys and physical as well.
“Jonah Holmes is at Ealing and he was playing international rugby the year before last. I’m pretty sure the Richmond second row [Tevita Cavubati] at the weekend played for Fiji at the last World Cup. The boys were saying as much in training. So it’s a really good standard and it does help your development.” You can read more here on the truth about Jonah Holmes, the Wales Grand Slam winner who ended his Test career to join England's second tier.
Standing at 6ft 1in and weighing 16st 5lb, Strong made an impression during his days with Wales U20s. One game, in particular, sticks in the memory, when he was one of two Welsh players to come up with 29 tackles in a match against Italy at Colwyn Bay. The Azzurri youngsters had current Italy senior squad members Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney and Lorenzo Cannone playing for them back in 2020 and Wales were starved of possession and territory, but their defence was outstanding, led by Strong and Ben Carter, who matched his fellow forward hit for hit.
The stats people Opta had not previously recorded more in a single game in the junior version of the tournament, with the Welsh duo matching the figure of Ireland’s James Ryan, who stopped 29 Scotland attackers in 2016.
With his relatively low centre of gravity, strong carrying, ability to win turnovers and power in defence, Strong looked a player who could kick on but Covid struck and temporarily checked his progress.
But he’s been making up lost ground at Ampthill.
“There’s a great bunch of boys here and we all want to get better,” he said.
“Paul Turner, the ex-Wales fly-half, oversees the coaching and the set-up and has loads of experience and is really good.
“There are other top coaches here as well. Joe Worsley has been coming in on a Wednesday to help out and Kelly Brown has been our forwards coach for the past few months.
“Tommy [Turner] is like the director of rugby, whereas Joe is more focused on the coaching side and sort of puts some of the principles in place. He’s involved with Georgia as well.”
Having an England World Cup winner in Worsley and a highly regarded former Scotland international in Brown helping him out isn't going to hurt Strong. “It is good for me, a No. 8, to have two back rowers like those two coaching me,” he said.
“To have them around, to see their mentality and work ethic, helps all of us.
"And Paul has seen it all and is great with the boys as well."
Strong still keeps an eye on the game in Wales. “I really enjoyed my time with Bridgend, so I still look out for their score and want them to do well,” he said.
“I have mates at the Ospreys as well.
“We went to watch the region play Saracens the other day and went up to see them play Leicester as well.
“I’m good friends with Harri Deaves. Watching him out in Zebre a couple of months ago was great to see. He stood out and, hopefully, he’ll start to nail his place in that senior team. I went to college with him, so to see him doing well is really nice. He has X factor in the back row, energy and qualities that you can’t teach people.
“I was with Jac Morgan as well in the U20s and I had a year with him at the Ospreys, while I also know the loosehead Garyn Phillips and Joe Hawkins.
“You do want to see people you played with do well.”
Strong is one to watch himself, mind. “I’m really enjoying it at Ampthill and will be here for next season for sure,” he said.
“I’m still young. But I guess there’s a lot of players in this league who want to be full-time players and I’m no different. We’ll just see how it works out, but, right now, I’m happy with how it’s going.”
Too good to be forgotten about?
Absolutely.
There's still more to come from Morgan Strong — much more.
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