LAST UPDATE | 12 Nov 2022
ONE OF THE biggest cheers of the afternoon arrived early in the second half. As Joey Carbery picked himself off the floor following a heavy blow to the head, Jack Crowley stepped up to the touchline awaiting the biggest moment of his career.
At 22, the out-half was about to win his first Test cap. It’s arrived quicker than most would have expected. It’s worth highlighting again that this is a player who is probably third in line at his province, and has just 19 Munster caps to his name. Some climb the ladder, others cut the legs off it.
Crowley’s job would be to steer Ireland home across the final 35 minutes against a Fiji side they led 21-10, and enjoyed a man advantage over – Albert Tuisue sent marching for the late hit on Carbery.
His arrival briefly injected some life into a crowd who had been struggling to find their voice.
If we learned one thing today, it’s that one o’clock kick-offs just don’t suit an Irish audience. As Kalaveti Ravouvou dived over to finish a brilliant Fiji try four minutes into this Autumn Nations Series clash at Aviva Stadium, large groups of supporters were still trickling from the concourse into the stands.
They had just missed a superb score from the visitors, one that saw Fiji collect a Carbery restart and switch the ball from right to left before tearing apart an Irish side who were down numbers out wide and chasing shadows.
Lack of communication, lack of clarity, lack of familiarity.
It’s always a concern when you make so many changes between Tests. Nine of today’s XV didn’t start against the Springboks sevens days ago. With so many new combinations, the cohesion that has become such a strength of Farrell’s Ireland can easily fly out the window.
Throw in the short turnaround between breakfast and kick-off, and it all fed into a predictably flat occasion and an underwhelming Ireland performance.
The great shame is that this fixture had the potential to be a thoroughly enjoyable day out. For all their flaws Fiji are well able to play with ball in hand and a home crowd are always happy to get behind young players offered an opportunity to shine.
Instead, flashes of quality were overshadowed by long stoppages which did the early afternoon crowd no favours as Ireland turned in a performance littered with errors.
Most eyes will have been on five players who featured against the Maori All Blacks over the summer and were promoted to the starting side here: Jimmy O’Brien, Stuart McCloskey, Jeremy Loughman, Kieran Treadwell and Nick Timoney.
O’Brien, fresh from a star-turn on debut against the Springboks, is one of the most interesting cases in Farrell’s squad. He has the versatility and quality to become a regular feature in the matchday 23 and had some nice touches, breaking forward with confidence during a move which led to Ireland’s third try, finished by Robert Baloucoune.
Timoney had supplied Ireland’s opening two tries; the first a finish from close range after a big carry from Treadwell, who was heavily involved and busy around the lineout.
McCloskey was perhaps the pick of the bunch in those early exchanges, driving forward in contact and getting through a tonne of work in midfield. The powerful Ulster man also helped shove the Ireland maul forward as Timoney crashed over for his second. McCloskey has had to be patient for his chances in green but has done a solid job of keeping himself in Farrell’s thoughts across this autumn window.
In the front row Loughman came in for a Test debut, and while this was never going to be day where props excelled he scrummaged well and nailed his jobs.
By the end of the opening 40 minutes, Ireland led by 11 without even fully settling into the game, despite enjoying 65% of the possession and 69% of the territory.
Then Crowley’s moment arrived as Fiji’s discipline further unravelled, Tuisue’s red followed by a second Fiji yellow card.
He was soon joined by another debutant as Cian Prendergast joined the action. The Connacht man has worked hard to get to this stage and will be frustrated that one of his first acts was the needless concession of a penalty just inside the Ireland half. Costly moments when opportunites are limited.
At least Crowley was in the mood to grasp his chance. After a quiet start he began to show why Farrell has been so comfortable to move him up the out-half queue with Harry Byrne and Ciarán Frawley nursing injuries at the wrong time.
His neat pop pass amid a crowd of Fiji bodies sparked a rare wave of appreciation and reminded those in attendance there was in fact a game taking place here. Moments later he did well to receive possession and whip a pass inside under pressure. In a low-quality affair, those snippets of skills stood out all the more.
Fiji wilted, Ireland grew. Craig Casey sprinted off the back of a scrum to hand Mack Hansen an easy finish. Crowley kicked his first two points as a Test player and doubled his tally when Cian Healy added their fifth.
After Fiji hit back through Simione Kuruvoli, Crowley was at it again, delaying his pass inside to Timoney perfectly to allow the Ulster man break clear. There was something undeniably Johnny Sexton-esque about that one.
Congrats to Jack Crowley.He dreamt of today for a very long time. Well done. 🇮🇪🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/6WJDiduYfx
— Ronan O Gara (@RonanOGara10) November 12, 2022
Not that it was all smooth sailing. As the game grew increasingly disjointed Ireland were wasteful in attack with numbers up and entering the final 10 minutes, with the dreaded Mexican wave working its way around the crowd – always the sign of a poor contest – Crowley sent a kick out on the full under little pressure.
It was a rare blip on a confident start to his Test career. He might have to wait for another shot but Crowley did enough today to suggest he could have a promising future in green ahead of him.
Ronan O’Gara, who previously tried to bring Crowley to La Rochelle, was one of the first to tweet out his congratulations to a fellow Munster man.
A memorable display on an otherwise utterly forgettable day in Dublin 4.
Please, no more 1pm kick-offs.
- Updated 8pm to appear on The Journal.
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I think there’s always a clamour to sensationalise things, Crowley was far from the biggest performance today. He was fine, but for me nothing spectacular, what was more important he made very few glaring errors, and now has the scope to build. But let’s not make him the man we pin all our hopes on, the last time we had this was when Carbery burst on the scene. I think Ben Healy’s performance the other night was better, against arguably better or at least similar opposition. I hope Crowley gets some minutes off the bench next weekend, and can continue to build once the provinces resume.
@Patrick Breen: you’re right about the headline but like the match today you go downhill after that. The only glaring mistake Crowley made was kicking the ball dead, his handling was assured, tackling good, line kicking spot on and 100% off the tee. Nothing spectacular but he’s only 22 and it was his debut. Wasn’t a pretty game to watch but if you want glaring, Ringroses 2 passes on the last 10 minutes but that would be petty as it looked as though players were trying too hard to impress.
@Patrick Breen: While agreed its annoying when journo’s smell a story and run out of the stadium with it but Ireland looked much sharper for his introduction. A game like that has no big performances really.
@Patrick Breen:
So we pinning our hopes on the third best Munster guy instead on the no 1 in Connacht or Ulster who are beating Munster.
Get real
@Cowboy Ted: I’m a Connacht fan and would definitely prefer Carty to be there, but I am real, and the reality is Crowley is the one being picked, I only mentioned Healy because he actually played this week.
We won. In the World Cup we will have two games where the ‘second’ team must perform and win. When playing teams like Fiji who thrive on unstructured open play you must keep your structure and play to your strengths. We certainly did that today and also gave vital game time to a number of inexperienced (at this level) players. Wasn’t a classic but it was controlled. I’ll take that any day.
Was this pre written and some actual action pasted in for deadline. This does not resemble the shambles that we saw in the stadium against 13 men for ten minutes…
Neither 10 impressed, tbh. Crowley was fine, but he was on the pitch playing against 13 for ten minutes, and we came away empty handed. And the rest of the match it was against 14. Obviously, the blame for that is collective and it was his first cap too, but it’s the fly half’s job to direct an attack, and it was dire. Yes, he had some nice touches too, but nothing more than say Carty would do day in day out, and that is clearly not enough to get him recalled. Healy’s performance for Munster on Thursday was better too. So let’s not heap pressure on him and start hyping him up to be the new Sexton.
@Joe Vlogs: Though he went well, putting players through, granted Hansen couldn’t finish but thats hardly Crowleys fault, his defence is aggressive and already better than Cartys’ (or Joeys), apart from one missed 50/22 he didn’t put a foot wrong, backline looked more lively with him on too. ‘clearly not enough to get him recalled’… yea clearly.
@Joe Vlogs: what impressed me about Crowley was his calmness. I like the cut of his jib but he has a long way to go and some serious hard work to do to get anywhere near “the next Johnny Sexton”
@thesaltyurchin: I said “clearly not enough to be recalled” in relation to Carty, who has had one two minute appearance for Ireland in the last four years – not Crowley. Look, with a game against Fiji, where there are likely to be many new combos, nobody generally impresses as people have this unrealistic expectation that we should be running in 10 tries against them. I get that. However, I didn’t think he dictated the game and attack in a way an outhalf should, especially when playing against 13 men. That’s the outhalfs role. I don’t think that is an overly harsh criticism.
@John Thomas: agree. He is young, and if he can work his way up the pecking order at Munster, then we can see how he fits long term in the Irish hierarchy. Would like him to get a spot on the bench next week, as I do think he has greater form than Carberry at present.
@Joe Vlogs: he’ll prob get his spot on the bench as Carbery’s head won’t be reattached by then. I won’t begrudge him it though and I hope he makes the most of it.
@Joe Vlogs: I think it is a bit overly harsh when you consider we had two clear try scoring opportunities in those ten minutes. Hansen and the Maul that Timoney got a bit greedy in. The lad has 19 Munster caps to his name and kept his head when he made his international debut for the number 1 ranked side in the world.
@Joe Vlogs: Well that’s embarrassing
Joey was having a good game until the injury, I really feel for the guy so unlucky
I was pretty sure that the ‘Prendergast’ penalty was for the tackler not rolling away. Cian was on his feet competing, the problem was the tackler. Anyways, he’d a good debut as did Crowley. Better than Joey IMO who seems caught in the headlights with Ireland.
@Dennis Laffey: was looking forward to the Prendergast intro. Insanely talented young man. Huge future ahead for him
@Fintan O’Halloran: he looks to be a good young player but I don’t see him as head and shoulders ahead off the other young back rowers we have.
Tonga will play the same rugby so that is a banana skin in the World Cup. A good job we played them today and hopefully we will learn something..
@Michael Dunne: did you think this was a close game? We won easy, the ref decided not to give them more cards which they should have got. The T.H should have got a 2nd yellow for collapsing a maul that was going to end in a try. Ref didn’t have the bottle to make the big calls today. But ye don’t wanna see fiji with about 11 players on the pitch
The game against Fiji was all about blooding fringe players and getting a result. It was a start-stop kind of game that struggled to get going. There was a family atmosphere in the Aviva yesterday. Ireland had a horrible start, conceded a try and lost Henshaw in the first two minutes. Ireland did well after that! Players have to be blooded for the World Cup, so performances will be disjointed. A lot of positives out of yesterdays test.
@Mike Ruddy: agree. The piece was a bit negative. I thought we looked good in parts against a team who in World Cup circles are always capable of an upset.