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These are your evening rugby headlines on Sunday, May 10.
Morgan makes Ospreys promise
Jac Morgan insists he is fully focused on having a strong end to the season with the Ospreys after delivering a superb man-of-the-match performance in his last home game for the region.
It was announced in December that Morgan – alongside his fellow Osprey and Wales co-captain Dewi Lake – would be leaving the Welsh side at the end of the season ahead of a move to PREM Rugby outfit Gloucester for the 2026/27 campaign, amid the uncertainty around the long-term future of the four regions.
The British and Irish Lions star delivered a trademark performance on his final home outing for the Ospreys on Saturday, scoring the winning try to seal a 27-20 derby victory over the Scarlets at the Brewery Field in Bridgend as he showed once again what Welsh domestic rugby will miss from next season.
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But while he signed off in front of a home crowd in style, Morgan is already focused on the next job, with next weekend’s clash with Leinster set to mark his final appearance in an Ospreys shirt.
“It’s a great feeling to get the try and really special to win on my last home game for the Ospreys,” he told S4C after the win over the Scarlets. “My time here has been great. I’ve loved playing here and I’ve always said this group of boys are special. I’m grateful to everyone at the club, I’ve loved it.
“But I’m not finished yet. We’ve still got Leinster so I’m looking forward to coming back on Monday for another week with them before my last game.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game against Scarlets and in fairness they were very good,” Morgan added. “But I was proud of the boys’ effort throughout the 80 minutes and to dig out the win in the end.”
Welsh rugby stalwart bows out
Llandovery legend Lee Rees will bow out from rugby later this evening as he leads his team out one last time in their Super Rygbi Cymru final against Ebbw Vale.
The 35-year-old scrum-half will make his 402nd and final appearance for the Drovers at Eugene Cross Park, having made his debut for the club back in 2008. Over the past 18 years, he has gone on to become one of the most exciting loose play attackers in the whole of Welsh semi-pro rugby, earning comparisons to Wales legend Shane Williams.
Rees is now looking to bring the curtain down on his career with silverware, although Ebbw Vale will be looking to deny him a fairytale finish.
“It’s a privilege to go out in this way when injury-free and physically feeling good,” he told the BBC. “I am very lucky to have such a big game to finish and there would be no better way to go out than winning at Ebbw Vale, because it is one of the hardest places to go.”
“It has been a bit of a transition year for [Llandovery] and the team has changed a lot throughout the season, so if we pull it off then I believe it would be the best of all our trophy wins.
“It is a formidable challenge to take on Ebbw Vale on their own patch because they are strong up front, know exactly what their plan is and usually execute it. But we go up there with confidence and self-belief because we have shown that we can turn anyone over on our day.”
McCall proud of Saracens’ grit
By Press Association Sport Staff
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall was elated with his side’s performance as they kept alive their hopes of an end of season play-off spot with a 41-26 win over Bristol in a thrilling game at Ashton Gate.
Saracens built up a 34-21 half-time lead as they exposed a leaky Bristol defence and despite losing forwards Theo McFarland and Maro Itoje to late yellow cards they held off a sustained second-half rally from Bears, who gave themselves too much ground to make up.
The bonus-point win for Saracens reduced the gap between themselves and Exeter and Bristol to just two and one point respectively and with two home games from their three remaining matches, they will fancy their chances of overhauling them.
Saracens’ tries came from Tom Willis, Hugh Tizard, Rotimi Segun, Ben Earl, Tobias Elliott and Fergus Burke, who added a penalty and three conversions. Owen Farrell kicked a conversion. Fitz Harding, Harry Thacker, Matias Moroni and Kalaveti Ravouvou scored Bristol’s tries with Tom Jordan converting three.
McCall said: “In the first half we were great with the ball in attack and very confrontational but we handed them a couple of gifts and so it was frustrating that the half-time score wasn’t as wide as it should have been.
“After the interval I’m proud of how we looked like a team that it mattered to as we showed huge grit in defence to tough it out, especially when we were down to 14 for a decent period of time.
“It was a nerve-wracking ending but fortunately they missed a crucial conversion at a vital stage which calmed me down as we’ve lost three games at home this season in the last five minutes.”
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam bemoaned his side’s poor defensive effort as Bears fell to their 10th consecutive defeat at the hands of Saracens.
He said: “It’s always a good game against Saracens and it always comes down to little moments but one of the areas that we pride ourselves on is our line-out defence but they broke through it three times today.
“People were in the wrong positions and we didn’t stay connected but we showed the boys some clips at half-time and to their credit they fixed it in the second half as we didn’t concede again until the 79th minute. It’s frustrating that they didn’t do that in the first half.
“We lost a few line-outs and didn’t look after the ruck when quick penalties were taken so being two scores behind at half-time instead of one left us too much to do.”
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