Souped-up Morris sees a slim chance

World Cup back on horizon for a finely honed talent

A little help from England and New Zealand and a lot of hard work along Swansea seafront will, Darren Morris hopes, get him back in the frame for Wales selection this week. Morris will have three Swansea team-mates with him when he attends a fitness testing session in Cardiff, but his battle to reverse a spectacular fall from grace has often been a lonely one.

As a loosehead prop who in his youth at Neath Tertiary College played in the back row, Morris was always a big man. When he presented himself at St Helen's for pre-season training, he was just too big. "Darren was 133.6kg," said Swansea's coach, John Connolly, after last week's 26-19 win over Bristol in the Heineken Cup. "He's down to 122kg now, and we want him to be around 116kg. There comes a crunch time in every one's careers. We want all our players to play for Wales."

In little more than a year after touring with the 2001 Lions, and winning his 15th Wales cap against Australia last November, Morris lost his jersey to Iestyn Thomas of Llanelli and found his fitness the subject of national gossip. The Aberdare-born 27 year old is no longer a member of the national squad. But his efforts at fighting the flab have earned him an exceptional shot at redemption, according to Wales's New Zealander fitness coach, Andrew Hore. Over the next three days, Hore will assess between 40 and 45 players for the last time before the Six Nations' Championship, and Morris will be scrutinised on Wednesday.

A fortnight ago, Morris was appointed Swansea captain, taking over from Scott Gibbs. It remains to be seen if Connolly's confidence in him will be shared by the Wales coach, Steve Hansen, who has overlooked Morris for every match since taking over from Graham Henry last February. "To be selected in any Wales squad is a privilege, and I never forget that," Morris said in a break from preparing for today's Heineken re-match away to Bristol. "I've been in constant contact with Steve, I spoke to him before the South Africa tour in June, and we did a fitness testing session before the autumn internationals.

"A couple of years ago Swansea were successful, playing an expansive game, so I shone up in certain areas, and if I'd been a different player I wouldn't have shone up. Then we had a bad spell, and obviously people were overlooked and every excuse under the sun is put in place for certain players not to be chosen. There's probably two per cent of players who have nothing at all to work on. Everybody could be fitter, faster or stronger."

Excuse or not, it seemed a terrible waste. Morris's behind-the-back pass to create Austin Healey's winning try for the Lions against the ACT Brumbies was a highlight of the tour. More sleight-of-hand while playing for the Barbarians proved that here was the mobile, yet hard-scrummaging loosehead that Wales had been yearning for.

Morris's last cap was an experiment at tighthead, under Henry, against the Wallabies. "Steve asked my opinion," said Morris, "and I said 'no, I just want to play loosehead'. I don't think I'm doing myself or the rest of the side justice by swapping over. I'm happy to switch over during a game but I want a run in one position. People don't realise how different the positions are."

It would be easy to treat Morris's demise as an analogy for a national game gone wrong, and if there have been rumours of a drinking culture at Swansea, then the same could be said of the country at large. The Premier clubs' benefactors are set for more chinwags with the Welsh Rugby Union this week, but the fitness gurus who work for them appear to be getting their act together.

Morris has responded to the challenge. Rocky-style runs around Swansea Bay in the pouring rain at seven in the morning have been part of a gruelling routine laid down by Hore and Swansea's English fitness coach, Nick Johnson. Morris gingerly lowers his ever-slimmer frame into an ice-bath after matches, and swimming pool recovery sessions are de rigueur.

"Darren's a world-class footballer who knows he should be playing for Wales," said Johnson. "He has done a lot of extra work – one-to-one sessions between team sessions, early starts, good fat-burning cross-training – and he's led from the front. I couldn't wish for a better model. He's got the carrot in front of him of the World Cup next year, and that's the self-motivation for him."

Johnson has set Morris the same targets used by Clive Woodward's England squad – "I got them from a friend of a friend," he explained – in significant areas such as fat-to-muscle ratio. The Wales dietician, Dan King, is also on hand. "Darren's body shape has changed," said Johnson. "We're re-educating his neuro-muscular system; he's becoming an explosive player at the breakdown, and in breaking a tackle. We want him involved in every phase where physically possible."

The aim is for Swansea to train to international standards. "The average ball-in-play time in the Welsh League last season was 29 minutes," Johnson said. "In the Zurich Premiership it's 33 or 34. Against Bristol we managed 37. England in the past have known they could run Wales off their feet." Which made Swansea's two length-of-the-field tries against Bristol all the more satisfying.

Morris, who mulled over the club captaincy for three weeks before accepting it, acknowledges the possibility of provincial rugby as an additional incentive. "We're keeping our minds on the job in hand, which is the rugby. By being more successful, every player has a chance and that's what we're concentrating on, as a team. The club had to start again in the summer, with new coaches, new patterns and 12 or 13 players turned over. It's taken us time just to settle in together. Personally, I've got aspirations. The short-term goal is to get Swansea playing well. Maybe then the players will reap the rewards."