Ospreys condemn 'disgraceful' abuse of Morgan

Ospreys boss Mark Jones has labelled online abuse of wing Luke Morgan "a disgrace" after an incident that led to Sharks' Ethan Hooker being injured.

Hooker suffered a dislocated shoulder in last weekend's United Rugby Championship (URC) fixture at Brewery Field.

The wing scored a breakaway try at the end of the first half and was injured in the process after opposite number Morgan dived to try to dislodge the ball.

Hooker, capped eight times by South Africa, will miss the URC run-in and is a doubt for the Springboks' summer Tests.

Morgan, who won a full cap in 2018 and is Wales sevens' record try scorer, has been targeted on social media along with family members.

"I'm not online for that particular reason," said Ospreys head coach Mark Jones.

"I have heard and I have been sent stuff that he has had to deal with, as well as his family.

"It's a disgrace if people are going to target sportsmen around incidents like that on a sports field to make it personal."

Jones, a former Wales wing, stressed his player was making a genuine attempt to prevent a key score in a tight game.

"Luke Morgan is a competitive guy. He's chasing back as hard as he can for his team in what was a tight game," Jones said.

"He's done his absolute utmost to do what we ask players to do, which is not give up until the ball is grounded."

Jones said Morgan was "well within his right to try to dislodge the ball" as Hooker went over.

He added: "Ethan Hooker is a great player and unfortunately he got injured in that incident, but there's no malice in that challenge."

There were reports that Sharks had asked for the incident to be investigated by the URC, but Ospreys have had no complaints from the citing commissioner and Morgan is available to face Cardiff on Friday night.

"He's a pretty resilient guy. He's played professional rugby at the highest level," he said.

"But I can imagine that as resilient as you are, you don't want to be having to deal with that on behalf of your family, you just want to get on with the sport you love."

Ospreys' excellent 21-17 victory kept alive their slim hopes of qualifying for the play-offs but came in controversial circumstances.

Sharks, who needed a win to keep the pressure on the top eight, were furious that injuries to loose-head props Gareth Thomas and Garyn Phillips led to uncontested scrums for the final quarter.

That meant Ospreys were reduced to 14 men, but the South Africans, who were increasingly dominant at the set-piece through Springbok props Ox Nche and Vincent Koch, failed to make the most of that advantage.

Once again, that has led to plenty of finger-pointing from South Africa, but Jones defended his club.

He said: "We pride ourselves on our integrity. We are pretty disappointed if people are suggesting that we didn't adhere to everything that we should be doing on game day."

Wales loose-head Thomas failed a head injury assessment on Saturday but passed another on Monday so remains in contention for Friday's derby at Cardiff.