World Cup winning back row legend Neil Back believes Jac Morgan can play himself into the test side to face Australia by delivering a breakdown masterclass to solve the British and Irish Lions biggest headache.
The Lions have been bullied at the breakdown on tour and conceded 16 turnovers in the mid-week win over the Brumbies raising fears this could be a weakness the Wallabies will exploit in the first test in Brisbane a week tomorrow.
Morgan has the problem No7 jersey against an Invitational Australian and New Zealand XV in Adelaide tomorrow, mostly made up of players who have never played together, offering the chance for the back rower to make the test shirt his own.
Back, who helped England win the 2003 World Cup and the Lions take the 1997 series in South Africa, was a brilliant ball stealer having proved the doubters wrong that he was too small to play test rugby.
Like Morgan, the former Leicester No7 was fearless, taking constant punishment in search of the ball. While Back considers Josh van der Flier to be head coach Andy Farrell's first choice for the Lions role, he can see Morgan forcing his way into the test side.
Back, a Lions veteran of three tours (1997, 2001 and 2005), exclusively told talkSPORT.com: "I’m a big Jac Morgan fan and he has an opportunity to really stake a claim tomorrow. If it was solely my choice and he goes well [against the Invitation XV], then I would pick Morgan 100%.
"I would love Morgan to get in because I sort of feel it’s wrong if there’s not a Welsh player in the Lions 15. Morgan must be licking his lips at the moment because there’s going to be lots of opportunities for him to turn over ball on Saturday.
"I think Ollie Chessum will be the six, Jack Conan at eight and that leaves the seven. So does he stick with van der Flier, or does he go with Tom Curry or Jac Morgan, who’s been particularly good at turning over the ball and sort of throws his body in there? If I'm Andy I think he’ll pick van der Flier because he will go with what he knows and he is an incredible player.
"It didn’t quite go [for Curry] in that last game and everyone is talking about the opposition's turnovers, but it’s not Curry's fault.
"With the selection for this weekend of Henry Pollock, Morgan and Ben Earl, I think the only person who has got a chance of getting the start [in the first test] is Morgan.”
Back dismissed claims it is solely the back row's fault the Lions have been exposed at the breakdown and insists the rest of the team have to step up.
"The team collectively have not been good enough at the contact area, simple as that. And the teams we’ve played have been slightly better than us", explained Back.
"But the point is that’s not the back row's sole responsibility. The best teams in the world, and I’d put New Zealand up there, all of their players are fantastic at the contact area.
"If you’re talking about turnovers, then there’s a bigger responsibility on the seven and six to do that. But in the best teams in the world, everyone is a good jackler to get over the ball and win possession back.
"In the big games it is really important to win fast ball because it denies the defence time to realign. Getting in there, over the ball is key but the seven can’t be at every breakdown or the six.
"Richie McCaw, one of the best sevens to play the game, was often the second or third player in there at the breakdown to secure possession for the All Blacks. At the moment the Lions aren’t good enough at securing their own ball and producing quick ball."
Back pinpoints a selection failure in the warm up loss to Argentina in Dublin as key to shaping the back row that will take on the Wallabies with a line out jumper chosen at No6. "Andy Farrell picked three sevens for his first game against Argentina, Curry, Morgan and Ben Earl.
"But the Lions forgot that you need that extra line out option in attack and defence. As a result we didn’t get enough ball or enough gain line and we didn’t have that line out options in attack or defence."
Like Lions tyro Henry Pollock, Back with his blond hair burst onto the scene in Leicester colours delivering unorthodox, yet outstanding individual performances. Mirroring the meteoric rise of Pollock, Back forced his way into the England team despite claims he was too small.
So, what does the oldest Lion to ever start a test match make of Pollock?
Back revealed: "I would put Pollock on the Lions replacements for the test because you know what he can bring. He’s not the finished article by any stretch of imagination but he does bring that energy.
"He's had moments of absolute brilliance, but then some average moments. When you get to international rugby everyone’s a good player and so for me, he still hasn’t proved he’s capable of doing that over 80 minutes.
"I believe he will, because he’s got everything, the athletic ability and skill set, so he ticks a lot of the boxes. But you know, the jury’s still out. I understand why Andy picked him and he hasn’t let him down thus far on tour.
"Are the Lions missing a trick not having Jack Willis on tour? The short answer is yes, but Pollock probably took his place, to be fair. It was a tough call. England themselves have got nine or 10 valid backrow options and there are players that aren’t on England's tour to Argentina."
Back couldn’t hold back his desire to turn back time and solve the Lions breakdown problems on this tour himself.
He admitted: "I’d love to play in today’s game. I think I’d win like 10 or 15 turnovers every game because, by the time some of these giants had bent over, I would already be on the ball.
"I think I brought something different early in my career. Partly that was down to basically training like a professional four years before the game turned professional. So my anaerobic capacity and ability to get there quickly and do things was a step above.”
Back is justly proud of holding the record as the oldest Lion to start a test match in history – aged 36 years and 160 days, he started at 7 in the first test against the All Blacks in 2005.
He revealed: “I’m sort of proud of that. I mean, my aspirations were set as an 11 year old boy when a school teacher asked me in class, what are your aspirations? What do you want to achieve when you’re older?
“I stood up and without giving it too much thought because I’d probably watched the Five Nations at the weekend, I said ‘I want to play for England at rugby and drive a Porsche’.
“And the reason I said drive a Porsche, my parents had bought me a remote control Porsche and put number seven on the side for Christmas. So I just blurted that out and all my classmates laughed. So as they stood up and talked about their aspirations when they were older, I thought I’ll show you.
“Some years later, I made my international debut against Australia at Twickenham for England schools. We lost. But 18 years later, I made my final appearance for England against Australia on the 22nd November 2003 and obviously we won. So during that time, I played every level. So I thank those guys for that inspiration.”
