Olly Morgan
| Full name | Oliver Morgan | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||
| Weight | 14 st 11 lb (207 lb; 94 kg) (94 Kg) | ||||||||
| School | Millfield School | ||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Oliver Morgan (born 3 November 1985 in London) is a rugby union footballer who plays at fullback for Gloucester and England.
Gloucester career
2004-05
Olly made 2 appearances for Gloucester during his debut season. His first start was against Saracens where he was put on the wing and he was Gloucester's sole try scorer in a 13-14 defeat at Kingsholm.[1]
2005-06
During this season Olly made many more appearances for Gloucester competing mainly with Jon Goodridge for the number 15 shirt. Other young players such as Anthony Allen and Ryan Lamb made their debuts during the season. Olly caught the eye with his fantastic ability to catch a high ball. Gloucester made the final of the European Challenge Cup which they went onto win but unfortunately Olly was injured for the final at The Stoop. Overall, Olly appeared 19 times for Gloucester in all competitions and he scored 2 tries, both in the European Challenge Cup.
2006-07
Olly and Gloucester made a great start to the season by beating Bath on the opening day with Olly scoring a try.[2] He continued his great form and was rewarded with selection by England. Unfortunately he was injured in his second appearance for England which ruled him out of the rest of the season including Gloucester's defeat to Leicester in the Guinness Premiership Final. He did manage 4 tries in 18 appearances for Gloucester.
2007-08
Injury haunted Olly once again after another fantastic start to the season. He scored 3 tries in his first 5 appearances of the season. During Gloucester's 31-7 victory at Bourgoin Olly dislocated his shoulder which ruled him out for nearly 4 months of the season. He returned in late March to play a part in helping Gloucester to top the table. However a dead leg meant he missed out on Gloucester's 25-26 home defeat to Leicester in the semi-finals of the Guinness Premiership. Olly scored 4 tries in his 13 Gloucester appearances during the season.
2008-09
Despite an indifferent season from Gloucester Olly played exceptionally well. He scored many tries during the first half of the season including 2 fantastic tries against Bristol, one at Kingsholm and one at the Memorial Stadium. Another great try was scored against London Wasps at home. Overall he made 24 appearances and scored 8 tries in all competitions. His 7 Guinness Premiership tries made him joint top premiership scorer at the club with Iain Balshaw. His outstanding performances for Gloucester meant that he was named Young player of the season for the 2008/09 season and he was also runner up for the player of the season award.[3] He was also named in the Sky Sports Dream Team for the season, selected by Will Greenwood, Dewi Morris and Stuart Barnes.[4]
England
Morgan made his England debut in the 2007 Six Nations opener against Scotland at Full Back. He played again for England three weeks later, against Ireland at Croke Park, in their third game of the tournament but had to leave the field with a season ending shoulder injury before half time. After a great 2008/09 season Olly was selected for England's 3 summer games[5], however he did not make any appearances.
References
- ^ Morgan's first try for Gloucester BBC Sport - 30 April 2005
- ^ Morgan scores against Bath BBC Sport - 2 September 2006
- ^ Morgan named young player of the season Gloucester Rugby - 23 April 2009
- ^ Morgan named in Sky Sports dream team Gloucester Rugby - 6 May 2009
- ^ Morgan selected for England Gloucester Rugby - 20 May 2009