Morgan confident for Wales win

The Newport Gwent Dragons fullback was in stellar form for his country as an attacking threat from the back and says the spirit is still strong in the Wales camp despite Sunday’s 19-9 defeat to tournament favourites Ireland.

Scotland were hammered 42-20 at Twickenham, with a resurgent Jonny Wilkinson leading the way bagging 27 points, but Morgan is expecting the hosts to come out firing in Edinburgh with their coach Frank Hadden demanding a win.

“We have to go into the Scotland game confident, we showed some good patches against Ireland, we just didn’t take our chances against them, so we will have to produce some better finishing,” said Morgan. “It was so frustrating to lose to the Irish, it was a very close game which could have gone either way, so we have to make sure we take our opportunities when they come along.

“We know Scotland will play a lot better at home than they do away. We have seen from the way they have played under Frank Hadden that they like to throw the ball around. England showed there were a few weaknesses in the Scottish defence, so we have to find those as well.”

With Gareth Jenkins sure to announce changes when he names the team on Wednesday, Morgan says belief is high in the squad of a win north of the border.

“Some of the new boys who came in did well, but there will be a few more faces in the team and we are fully confident we can go up there and do the job,” said Morgan. “We try and play an open game, that is our style of play and we mix it up a bit, we play better when we are direct, which is what we started doing against Ireland.”

After missing all of last year’s RBS Six Nations with a foot injury, the fleet-footed 29-year-old is just pleased to be on the pitch for this year’s campaign and getting back to his dazzling best: “As I said before the autumn internationals, I didn’t expect to be playing my best rugby until the RBS Six Nations, so it is nice to be playing in the campaign and having a decent game. I hope to improve with every game.”