If it turns out he has only one cap in his locker when he ends his days a rugby player, Luke Morgan will at least be able to console himself he’ll be in good company.
David Bishop, after all, played just once for Wales and no less an authority than ex-Neath RFC team boss Brian Thomas rated him the finest rugby player in the northern hemisphere.
Welsh rugby’s official player of the year in 1970, with Gareth Edwards and Barry John winning the award either side of him, Maesteg’s Chico Hopkins also made just a solitary appearance for his country.
And so it goes on. Roy Mathias, Clive Griffiths, Clive Shell, Jason Forster, Phil Pugh, Lee Jarvis and Jonathan Mason are among a veritable regiment of players whose Test careers didn’t go beyond one outing on the big stage.
One appearance on the biggest stage is never something to be sniffed at. For the individual concerned it will always mean a huge amount. Telling WalesOnline how he felt ahead of the game with Australia in 1984, Bishop said: “You put that shirt over your head, you let it slide down your back and you just think: ‘Hey, I’m representing my country today’.
“There is no feeling like it in the world.
“Throughout the whole of the national anthem before the Wallaby clash, I cried.”
Of course, Morgan may yet go on to achieve more recognition.
But after being left out of Wales’ World Cup training squad this week, and being omitted for the Six Nations, it’s increasingly looking a long way back for the player capped against Scotland last autumn.
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THE SHOCK CALL
Morgan’s record in sevens remains sensational.
He is Wales’ all-time record try scorer in the short form of the game with 131 in 202 games on the World Series circuit.
The question was whether he could transfer those skills to the 15-a-side game.
The Ospreys were confident he could, with rugby general manager Dan Griffiths saying: "As a young man he was given the opportunity to refine his game on the sevens circuit and he has developed into a world-class finisher.”
Morgan repaid the faith, ripping through defences at the start of the season and earning himself plaudits from far and wide.
A Wales call duly followed.
At the time the 26-year-old had featured in only seven games of professional 15-a-side rugby in his life.
Not many have risen to prominence on the back of so few outings.
But Morgan had deserved his summons, with his try against the Scarlets in Llanelli showcasing his predatory skills: accepting a pass off Justin Tipuric, he moved from 0 to 60 before the West Walians could do anything about it and was over the line and celebrating while some in the ground were just realising an opportunity might be about to unfold.
Warren Gatland brought him into the Wales set-up to have a closer look at him.
He would start against Scotland.
A FRUSTRATING DEBUT
It may just have been the longest hour of Luke Morgan’s life.
There he was, on the Wales left wing, with much of the play going the other way. Does a new boy risk deserting his post and go hunting for ball? Or would the consequences be potentially too grave if a sudden counter paid dividends for the Scots with no one at home out wide? Perhaps the safer bet was to hope the ball would eventually find its way across the backline? It does in most games, after all.
It didn’t for Morgan against Scotland.
He didn’t receive a pass until the 65th minute.
He had put in a couple of tackles and caught one high ball, but opportunities to show the dazzling attacking form he had been in for the Ospreys were non-existent.
Compounding his frustration, after he left the field on 79 minutes, his replacement Steff Evans immediately received a pass that allowed him to go on a trademark run.
The end-of-game stats for Morgan told a story: two runs, three metres; five tackles, one miss.
It always looked likely that would be that for him that month, with Liam Williams due back and Gatland wanting to give others, such as Josh Adams and Steff Evans, opportunities.
And so it proved.
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BACK IN THE GROOVE
His first three starts for the Ospreys after the autumn Tests saw him score five tries, including a hat-trick against Zebre.
It was exactly the way to respond after his testing time with Wales.
“Of course, there is always that element of disappointment,” he said as he settled back in at Llandarcy.
“You set your targets high, but I know the door isn’t closed. I have just got to keep doing what I’m doing.
“The season has been a bit of a roller-coaster, but I have already achieved a lot more than what I thought I would.
“The key for me is to stick to what I do best and not over-think things.
“The main thing is not to get too down about it. You are going to get setbacks. It is how you overcome them.
“Hopefully, I can try to push that door open with Wales again with the Ospreys over the coming weeks.”
NO FURTHER CALLS FROM WALES
If Morgan’s the type to keep checking for calls from the Wales management, he would long ago have been acutely disappointed.
But he seems one of those who approach life with a positive perspective.
His first challenge is to start scoring again.
After bagging nine tries in 10 games at the start of the season, he hasn’t crossed the whitewash in 10 subsequent appearances for the Ospreys, albeit that five of those have been off the bench.
That needs to be put right quickly at the start of next season.
But scoring instincts tend to stay with a player.
If he is part of a team creating opportunities, he will take them.
VERDICT
There is no doubt about Morgan’s quality as a finisher. He has something that any team would benefit from and that is electric pace. Backing that up he has a try-scorer’s instincts. He spots chances a split-second sooner than others and so buys himself the extra yard of space that can often prove the difference between a score and a move being snuffed out.
Not being included in the eight back-three men named in Warren Gatland’s World Cup training squad underlines how much of a challenge Morgan faces.
Barring a spate of injuries affecting those in whom the New Zealander has placed his faith, Morgan’s World Cup chances appear to be roughly in the region of Elvis turning up on High Street in Swansea next week and being clouted by a piece of space debris.
Will the diminutive one play for Wales again?
His first goal will be to cement a regular starting spot at the Ospreys. Then he can think about perhaps impressing Wayne Pivac on the Wales scene. As he himself said: it’s about overcoming the setbacks that a sportsman is always going to have.
And if he doesn’t feature again for his country, no one will ever be able to take away the one cap he won away last autumn.
But let’s hope we see him again in a red jersey.
At 26, his best years should still be ahead of him.
