'Jac's changed the game': a view of the Lions from Cwmtwrch RFC

Amateur club where Wales captain Morgan learned his rugby is not short of tales from tours past

- Andy Bull

A way along the Great Western mainline, a way up the Swansea Valley, a way off Heol Gleien Road, is Cwmtwrch RFC, where Jac Morgan first learned his rugby. They have turned out a handful of Wales internationals in the 135 years since they were founded, but Morgan is their first British & Irish Lion.

He is also the one and only Welshman left on the tour and when he comes on to the field, 54 minutes into Saturday's second Test at the MCG, the atmosphere quickens inside the clubhouse. There is a swell of quiet pride and a little anxiety, too, as he latches on to the pack for his first scrum.

The scrum wheels, the Lions break downfield and all of a sudden Morgan is carrying the ball forward. Someone cries out in all the excitement: "Great scrum, Jac." And someone else: "See. He's changed the game already" - and everyone breaks out laughing.

There are about 30 people in here watching and there are about 30 out there watching. "Some people were saving up two years for this trip," says the club's chair, Tom Addey. They started putting money aside when Morgan was made Wales's co-captain in 2023 and the prospect of his being picked for this began to feel like a real possibility.

Addey points out the spot they have saved on the wall where they are planning to hang his Lions jersey, next to the TV screen, and shows off the little Grogg figurine of Morgan in his Lions kit, which came in when he was named in the team on Thursday morning, "a gift for the Cwmtwrch clubhouse".