IT’S MAY 2013 and there’s a summer vibe in the air at Bandon RFC. Excitement abounds. That’s because they’ve welcomed a couple of Cork superstars to their homely clubhouse a few minutes’ spin out the Clonakilty Road from town.
Munster and Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony and Simon Zebo are visiting to present awards at the club’s end-of-season celebration. The Bandon U19s get top billing after winning the All-Ireland Cup the month before, but there are rows of younger kids to be presented with medals too.
Among them is a wide-eyed 13-year-old Jack Crowley. Perhaps the youthful Bandon player was already imagining what he might go on to achieve, but few could have predicted that Crowley would be in the same Ireland squad as O’Mahony a decade later.
But fast forward to May 2023. It’s the weekend after 23-year-old Crowley nailed the match-winning drop-goal for Munster against Leinster, sending his province into the URC final. There’s great excitement around Bandon RFC for their end-of-season evening.
Now Crowley is the star attraction. He’s visiting along with Munster team-mate Shane Daly, who didn’t play for Bandon but whose father, Billy, is president of the club. The Bandon kids can’t get enough of Crowley. He and Daly spend nearly four hours signing autographs and posing for photos.
“That brought home the reality of it,” says Dan Murphy, director of rugby in Bandon and one of the club’s past presidents.
“You saw the idolisation, the hero worship of both of them, but especially Jack obviously. The kids were all looking up to him.”
Crowley is the first full Ireland international to come from Bandon RFC. They’ll be watching this evening as Crowley makes his second Ireland start in the World Cup warm-up clash with Italy [KO 8pm, RTÉ], with plenty of his friends and family at the Aviva Stadium.
The Crowleys are part of the fabric of Bandon. Jack’s father, Fachtna, played for Bandon, as did his uncles, Ger, Declan, and Liam. The connection is strong on the other side of the family too through Jack’s mother, Maria. Her brothers, Eoin and Liam Burke, played for Bandon.
The Crowleys hail from the parish of Innishannon, around 10 minutes outside Bandon, and though most of them played football and hurling with Valley Rovers GAA club as well, rugby was always going to be central for Fachtna and Maria’s kids. Their love for the game is underlined by the fact that they put up rugby posts next to their house.
Jack’s two older brothers, Jerry and Billy, played with Bandon. In fact, Jerry still features in the centre for Bandon in the first division of the Munster Junior League. Billy, a fullback, is now with Cork Con in the All-Ireland League.
Jack’s first cousin, Matty Crowley, is also on the Bandon team and another cousin, Emily Crowley, has been a pivotal figure in building the girls’ and women’s rugby section of the club. It’s a real Bandon dynasty but there’s no doubt Jack is now the king.
Eamonn Guinevan coached Crowley throughout his age-grade days in Bandon and says the stand-out feature was his temperament. In that sense, it’s not a huge surprise for him and others to see Crowley nailing moments like that drop-goal against Leinster.
“He obviously had the skills, he was a very good kicker and passer, but the big thing was that he never seemed to lose his confidence,” says Guinevan.
“Looking back on it, he was similar to Ronan O’Gara in a way. If Jack made a mistake or had a bad first half, he could turn it around. I always thought Ronan O’Gara was the best I’ve seen that way – O’Gara could have a bad first half but come out and be the best player on the pitch in the second half.
“Jack had the ability to very quickly put a mistake behind him. Even within a game, he could recover from something that might knock the confidence of another player. He had that belief in himself.”
Having initially played out-half, Crowley spent several years at scrum-half for Bandon club and in Bandon Grammar School, who also played a pivotal role in his development.
When Bandon RFC lost a Munster U16 final to Waterpark in 2016, Crowley was still a scrum-half albeit he was already showing that he was a fine place-kicker. He also wore the number nine in his first year with the senior team in Bandon Grammar.
Whatever about his position, Crowley’s work ethic and desire to improve were already apparent. Down in Bandon, they nodded knowingly last year when they heard Crowley had called Ireland assistant Mike Catt out of the blue asking what the Irish coaches were looking for.
In Bandon, they had seen him as a teenager practicing kick after kick to the point that they nearly needed to chase him off the pitch.
“Jack had an unbelievable hunger and was probably doing a lot of extras that others weren’t,” says Murphy. “When you read about him ringing Mike Catt, you weren’t surprised.
After the U16 final, Guinevan and co. decided Crowley could have a greater influence from number 10. Ciaran Roberts, who was in the Ealing Trailfinders academy in recent years, went to scrum-half and a brilliant halfback pairing was born at the heart of a talented team. Two years later, Bandon RFC won the U18 All-Ireland Cup.
Tellingly, Crowley saved his best-ever underage performance for Bandon for that day in Mullingar as he scored 15 points in a 20-7 win over Skerries.
“He ran the game for us, got a really good kick into the wind in the second half, and just bossed it, put us into the right positions, scored a try,” says Guinevan, whose son, Eoghan, was also part of that Bandon team.
“Jack didn’t put a foot wrong all day in that game. It was a pressure match and he was just really classy.”
11 of the players who won that All-Ireland also played for Bandon Grammar, meaning there was a strong bond in the group. Many of Crowley’s former team-mates still play for Bandon’s J1 team.
Crowley would point out how the coaching of Frenchman Régis Sonnes, who worked with the club and school between 2016 and 2018, also played a big part in his progress. Sonnes is actually now back in a similar role in Bandon.
Crowley’s last year in school was an impressive one as he captained Bandon Grammar to the semi-finals of the Munster Schools Senior Cup, delivering a brilliant performance in their quarter-final replay against Glenstal. Crowley even managed to get a final appearance in for Bandon RFC after that, starring for the J2s, but he was now on the pathway to big things.
Ireland U19s caps were followed by a move to Cork Con, joining his brother Billy, and though he didn’t go into the full Munster academy straight out of school, Crowley was in within a year after a brilliant 2019/20 season that included three strong showings for the Ireland U20s.
He certainly would have liked to make swifter progress with Munster in the following two seasons – particularly having turned down a move to Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle in 2021 – but everything exploded last season, with province and country.
Crowley’s ability to calmly navigate every step up was crucial as he made his Ireland debut off the bench against Fiji last November and was then sprung into the starting team against Australia a week later when captain Johnny Sexton was injured in the warm-up. Everyone from Bandon lived every moment of the game.
“Whatever about getting picked and having a few days to get your head around it, to be told you’re starting the game in 10 minutes’ time, to be able to stand up and do that takes a bit of nerve and confidence,” says Guinevan. “He always had that belief.”
After another cap off the bench in the Six Nations, Crowley showed his worth for Munster as they marched to a remarkable URC triumph.
Along with his drop-goal against Leinster, out-half Crowley delivered a superb showing in the final against the Stormers. Guinevan remembers how Crowley used to try all sorts of passes and kicks in his Bandon days and the variety in his game is now crucial.
“He seems to have time on the ball, like all the really good players, they seem to have that extra second,” he says.
“In the last 12 months and especially those last few games for Munster, he just has that presence on the pitch. You should always know the out-half and you can see that in him now. You know he’s in charge.”
The pride in Bandon is palpable and everyone can see the effect Crowley’s rise is having on young players who hope to follow in his footsteps.
Murphy is sure it will be “bedlam” if they’re gathered in the clubhouse watching Crowley playing at the World Cup, inspiring the next generation.
“He’s the first international that has come through the ranks of Bandon rugby club and that’s a massive thing,” says Murphy.
“As a club, we’d see the future being in our underage so it’s a great reward. He’s the first fella that went all the way.”
