Wayne Pivac has explained his reason behind leaving Jac Morgan out of the Wales squad to tour South Africa this summer.
In his 33-man squad to face the world champions in three Tests in July, Pivac plumped for uncapped openside Tommy Reffell, the former Wales under-20s skipper who has been starring for Gallagher Premiership leaders Leicester this season.
Morgan's omission did raise eyebrows, though, after a number of stunning performances for the Ospreys this season, including against Cardiff recently, when he outshone Josh Navidi.
Pivac, though, suggested he wants Morgan to put on size over the off-season and get stronger in the contact area, which is a widely-perceived strength of the young Osprey. Indeed, he has achieved 22 turnovers in the United Rugby Championship this season. No player in the entire league has more.
The Wales boss explained: "I had a good chat to Jac around what we want him to do in the off-season and that's a big work-on in terms of what he can do in the strength and conditioning area.
"The game's a really physical game. Where we're going, South Africa, there are a lot of very big men. We've asked him to improve, if he can, in that area of physicality when he's over the ball, being even stronger than he is.
"He'll go away and work hard at his game, I know that. He's a young guy and he's desperate to get back into the side. It's all ahead of him."
Giving Reffell his first ever senior Wales call-up, Pivac went on to explain that he was close to getting the nod in the Six Nations but the problems with the 23-year-old being based in England counted against him.
Pivac said: "Tommy Reffell is someone that we spoke about before the Six Nations and it was touch and go. We went with the local boys for the obvious reasons that have been mentioned previously. But he's now been in form week in and week out, in a pretty tough competition and a team that's playing well.
"He's full of confidence and we think that now is the right time to put him into the squad and see how he goes at this level."
