"He sets such a high standard for himself. He wants to take this number 10 jersey."
It is probably a good thing that Jack Crowley missed a few conversions against Italy or the hype train may already have been a steam-toting dot in the distance.
The first year of Crowley in the Ireland senior set-up was filled with tales of him being a precocious talent, back in Cork, getting to meet Munster heroes Simon Zebo and Peter O'Mahony, and rejecting a
ROG-embossed invite to play for La Rochelle. We also had him drafted in, at late notice, to not only cover for the injured Johnny Sexton, against Australia, but
wear his actual No.10 jersey.
It was not until Crowley plunged the drop goal dagger against Leinster, in the URC semi-final, that folks started to regard him as more of that ruthless matchwinner a top outhalf needs to be. Crowley celebrated the sight but switched back to
cold-blooded in his post-match interview. Nothing was won yet. "It was more than a moment," he insisted.
The following week, he went out and played a high attacking line against Stormers, in the URC final, and cruised around DHL Stadium like he owned the place. That summer, in the tough proving ground of those Andy Farrell training sessions, at the High Performance Centre (Dublin) and over in Portugal, he proved to Farrell he would be next man up. He carries himself like he belongs and is showing he has the game to back it up.
Ronan O'Gara, who had tried to bring him over to La Rochelle, told us
what he likes best about Jack Crowley:
"The signs for me are very positive in the fact that I don't think he's put off his game by making mistakes. I think he's mentally very strong and I think he's very well prepared. He understands the game very well and he understands what pictures to attack and understands what pictures to kick. So, he's an instinctive player, yet he's proved he can be a structured player. That's what you need to be as a 10."
Against France and Italy, so far in this Six Nations, Crowley has had some blips but it has been mostly positive. It could not have gone too much better. Crowley is 88% off the kicking tee in this season's URC so he will want to lift his Six Nations average (67% - eight from 12) as the championship progresses. There is a
great Sportsfile snap of an irate Crowley, as a conversion effort strayed wide against Italy, that tells you as much.
Heading into the Wales game, though, with Hugo Keenan the biggest Ireland injury doubt, Andy Farrell should avoid the tempting option to drop Crowley back into the fullback role. It is a selection decision we covered [
from 20:50 below] in the latest
House of Rugby.
[caption id="attachment_297983" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Jack Crowley, right, and Ciarán Frawley of Ireland. (Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile)[/caption]
The Jack Crowley temptation
If Hugo Keenan does miss the Wales game, it will be only the 10th Test match of 48 games, with Andy Farrell at the helm, that he has not started for Ireland. Keenan, Andrew Porter and Josh van der Flier are the players to feature most under Farrell and the Leinster fullback has been arguably the most consistent to a high, high level.
Jimmy O'Brien and Mack Hansen - two decent fullback options - are rehabbing from respective neck and shoulder injuries and past experiments with Jacob Stockdale and Jordan Larmour have not convinced the Irish coaching staff.
Jack Crowley - like Calvin Nash - only has one professional rugby start in a 15 jersey but he has covered inside centre and fullback for both province and country. With Ross Byrne back in the picture, the temptation would be for Farrell to bring the Leinster outhalf back into the fold and dropped Crowley back.
After
the 36-0 win over Italy, in which Crowley scored a try and dished a super offload in the build-up to a Dan Sheehan score, the Ireland head coach gave a critique on the 24-year-old's cameo at fullback. "I thought he played really well at 10," said Farrell. "When he went to 15, he got a little bit wider and a few errors crept crept in there, but we'll work on that, as well."
On House of Rugby, myself and former Ireland star Lindsay Peat mulled if Crowley was 'a viable option at 15'. Peat commented:
"Personally, now, in Jack's infancy in a senior level rugby - having that opportunity to get a run of Test games - I would leave him at 10. We have other options at fullback that we could look at - Nash or Frawley... now, Keenan is world-class and head and shoulders above the rest - he is untouchable - but you have to look at that 15 jersey for depth."
For me, give Frawley a run at fullback (from the start or slotting in) for Leinster against Benetton and then put him up against Jacob Stockdale in some training drills, with Ireland. They are the two who should be duking it out for the 15 jersey, in the current circumstances. Frawley has six fullback starts already for Leinster, this season. On the bench, a Byrne brother covers in a 5:3 split.
For Jack Crowley, he has surpassed just about every expectation in his first two starts in the Six Nations. Some of his open-field play has been superb to watch and he has bravery in buckets - inviting those big hits to put teammates through gaps.
Get the goal-kicking stats up and we may soon find ourselves gearing up for the next, long-running 10.
HOUSE OF RUGBY, WITH LINDSAY PEAT & PAT MCCARRY
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