England Ben Morgan’s advance no shock to Brad Harrington

Brad Harrington has not been surprised by the impact Ben Morgan has had in an England shirt.
Gloucester‘s new No.8 has established himself as a Red Rose regular after pledging his allegiance to Stuart Lancaster ahead of the Six Nations.
But Scarlets head of conditioning Harrington, who picked an overweight Morgan from the rugby scrap heap and turned him into a streamlined professional, never doubted the potential.
He said: “We have pretty clear standards which we work towards and we know once the boys hit them they can compete with anyone in world rugby.
“We know where these players need to be to compete. If we can get the time we can develop them physically. The timing worked out really well with Ben as we had two years to work on him while he was with the semi-pro side.
“There was a big team of physios and conditioners here that played a massive role in getting him to where he is today.
“We’re often handed projects like that but it was clear that Ben had natural speed, strength and power. He was quite a raw talent and we just needed to get weight off him.
“We had to come up with ways for him to burn in the day and put him on a strict diet.
“It was a challenge but Ben really bought into it. The expertise we had here with the application and dedication he showed was why it went so well.”
The tough-talking Australian, who has a background in rugby league, is currently putting the Scarlets through their paces in pre-season.
And he is already expecting big things from his latest ‘project’ in the new season – Aaron Shingler.
Shingler came to rugby late having pursued a career in county cricket with Glamorgan. He burst on to the scene last year and made his international debut during the Six Nations.
Harrington said: “Aaron is in his fifth year of this programme and is still work in progress.
“When he came from Glamorgan cricket he was this skinny little beanpole weighing 90kg. The first two years nobody knew about Aaron because we basically locked him in the gym until he got bigger. It took two years for him to put on weight, he’s put on two stone, and it was really hard work.
“He’s a phenomenal back-rower, he has fantastic athleticism, he’s quick, he’s got an unbelievable engine, he’s fit, a good footballer. But he’s in a tricky position and has to cover back-row and second-row. For the second-row he needs to play a bit tighter and could do with a little bit more weight to help him in that area.
“He won’t put on another two stone but another three or four kilos every pre-season and become a Josh Turnbull type physique. The challenge is to keep his speed, athleticism and fitness up, which we’ve been able to do so far.”
MIKE BROWN