Morgan backs Lake's Wales captaincy credentials

Flanker Jac Morgan says he will back up "brilliant" captain Dewi Lake after the hooker retained the Wales leadership role.

Lake took over as skipper when Morgan suffered a dislocated left shoulder in the act of scoring against Argentina in November.

The British and Irish Lions flanker has returned to the Wales squad after missing almost two campaigns but head coach Steve Tandy opted to keep Lake as his captain.

"I'm just looking forward to backing Dewi up," said Morgan. "He's a great captain, a great leader and someone you'll always follow into a game.

"I try and support Dewi as best as I can and we've got a good group of leaders on and off the field."

Morgan missed eight Tests after suffering the shoulder injury at Principality Stadium in Tandy's first game in charge.

The Gloucester-bound flanker returned to play in the 33-31 victory against Barbarians at the Allianz Stadium at Twickenham.

It was an uncapped warm-up game for the Nations Championship tournament which starts against Fiji at Cardiff City Stadium next Saturday before away trips to play Argentina and South Africa.

Morgan took over the captaincy at half-time when Lake was taken off.

"I love being back," said Morgan. "It's always an honour to be able to put the jersey on and I was chuffed to be back in the field with the boys.

"It was a tough game against a good Barbarians side and it was great to be able to get that win."

Morgan says he has seen improvements under Tandy since his return.

"It's been great to be able to watch because you can see how Steve and the coaches want to implement the game," said Morgan.

"You can see during the Six Nations we're getting better every game. You could see the identity we were trying to bring through.

"You always want to be out in the field, but it was great to be able to watch the boys play and I thought they did a brilliant job."