Jac Morgan<\/a> has been feeling a sense of hiraeth with the British and Irish Lions in Australia this summer.<\/p>\nHowever, were he ever feeling a bit homesick while Down Under, then he’s luckily found some unlikely allies in Andy Farrell’s pack.<\/p>\n
Ellis Genge, simply by hailing from Bristol, is perhaps close enough to another Welshman in camp, while Tadhg Beirne, were it not for a ill-timed skiing trip, could easily have been an international team-mate. However, it’s England second-row Ollie Chessum who has been bringing that little piece of home to Morgan out here in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
“Jac is one of the lads I\u2019ve grown one of the closest to in the group,” said Chessum, who will start the second Test after being on the bench for the Brisbane Test. “I\u2019ve spent a lot of time with him and the calibre and quality of player he is \u2013 you always knew that, at some point, he was going to get an opportunity because of the way he\u2019s played across the tour.<\/p>\n
“Everyone is delighted for him, he\u2019s a proper good bloke and no-one has got a bad word to say about him, apart from that they can\u2019t understand what he\u2019s saying half the time!<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m made up for Jac.”<\/p>\n
![\"British](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_GettyImages-2224538856.jpg\")
British and Irish Lions’ player Jac Morgan runs with the ball next to teammate Ollie Chessum (R)(Image: AFP or licensors)<\/p>\n
As for why the pair have grown close, it might have something to do with Chessum’s bilingual efforts in camp.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve got a Welsh girlfriend who speaks Welsh, so I\u2019ve been trying to drop in a few phrases and take the mick a little bit,” said Chessum. \u2018It depends what time of day it is, but I just drop a little \u201cbore da\u201d (good morning) in there!\u2019<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s a good bloke, I don\u2019t have a bad word to say about him and I\u2019m good mates with Tommy Reffell back at Leicester so we had a few mutual friends and we got chatting. He\u2019s a good lad.”<\/p>\n
The support out here in Morgan has been remarkable, with the affable 25-year-old Wales captain carrying the hopes of a nation single-handedly. And he’s been doing it impeccably, in all fairness.<\/p>\n
Having missed out on selection for the first Test in Brisbane, the Welshman was named in the matchday squad for the second Test here in Melbourne – undoubtedly delighting the many who have made the long trip from Wales to watch him.<\/p>\n
The sheer number of Welsh fans out here cheering on Morgan hasn’t been lost on the man himself, nor his team-mates.<\/p>\n
“Everywhere you go, there\u2019s a Welsh contingent of fans and every time they see him they go wild,” added Chessum. “The people in Wales are going to get what they\u2019ve been waiting for at the weekend, to see Jac playing in a Lions Test.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve not thought about it like that, about Jac, but I\u2019m just delighted for him. The whole squad has made a selfless effort backing-up week after week and he\u2019s been one of those.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s got his shot this weekend and I\u2019m made up for him.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morgan has become one of the most popualr members of the Lions squad with players and fans alike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[5313,23126,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-290897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","9":"tag-jac-morgan","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114914541262342824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jac](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_GettyImages-2221472222.jpg\")
Jac Morgan of The British & Irish Lions poses for a selfie with a supporter after arriving in Australia(Image: 2025 Getty Images)<\/p>\n