HAD IRELAND BEEN able to hold England out in that last defensive set at Twickenham, there probably would have been a lot more talk about Jack Crowley’s delayed pass in the build-up to James Lowe’s first try.

It was the latest classy touch from Crowley in a Six Nations campaign that has featured quite a few of them.

The 24-year-old Ireland out-half is a creative player who fits in well with what Andy Farrell wants his team to do in attack. Farrell regularly mentions how some players have a good ‘feel’ for the game and Crowley is continuing to develop that.

In this instance against England, Crowley receives a sweep pass from Tadhg Furlong, recognises that Henry Slade has blitzed up outside him, dummies his pass, then after a short delay releases the ball in behind Slade to free Caelan Doris in midfield.

The Irish out-half has been delivering nice touches like this from the opening game of the championship against France.

His assist for Tadhg Beirne in that game was memorable.

This is a good example of Crowley’s habit of disguising passes. In this case, his body language suggests he will go out the back door to Lowe but as France centre Jonathan Danty reads that option, Crowley instead sends Beirne through the front door.

The Inishannon man has generally been good at pulling the trigger in attack for Ireland in this championship.

Watch below as he identifies the try-scoring chance and literally pushes Beirne out of the way to ensure scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park has a clear passing lane to him.

Crowley then fades outside opposite number Sam Costelow and lures in Wales fullback Cameron Winnett, ensuring that Calvin Nash and Lowe have a two-on-one chance against Josh Adams on the edge.

Nash deserved the plentiful praise for his assist here but Crowley’s work just before was important too, as was the ball-carrying from the likes of Joe McCarthy before the backs struck.

It hasn’t been a surprise to see Crowley fitting into Ireland’s attack so seamlessly in his first campaign as their starting out-half. His body of work up until this Six Nations suggested he was an ideal fit.

Crowley’s pace and footwork are further strengths, allowing him to get out of trouble when he’s rushed by the defence, as well as threatening the line himself in a way that some out-halves struggle to do.

In fact, Jack Crowley has been Ireland’s second busiest ball-carrier in this Six Nations so far with 39 carries. Only Doris has carried more often for Ireland with 42. 

The example below sees Crowley’s pace come into play off a scrum attack.

The Ireland out-half has beaten 10 defenders in his four Six Nations starts. Crowley’s agility is also useful when he’s positioned in the backfield, as happens regularly when Ireland are defending. He is relatively confident under the high ball and his footwork when he lands helps him to buy time for his team. 

While Crowley’s passing has largely been strong, it appears he still has a bit of work to do on his longer left-handed passing. These are the small details you’d expect a novice Test starter to have to iron out.

Crowley has kicked at 74% success off the tee in this campaign. That leaves him third on the overall list of kickers who have attempted more than five place-kicks, with Thomas Ramos [90%] and Finn Russell [95%] ahead.

Crowley has attempted more kicks at goal [23] than anyone else mainly because Ireland have scored lots of tries.

He had an early penalty miss off the tee from a central position against France but has nailed a few tough conversion attempts from out wide.

Two attempts from wide on the left against England were off target, the first narrowly but the second by a bigger margin, and a perfectionist like Crowley would have loved to nail those difficult shots, especially the second one as it would have given Ireland at four-point lead with six minutes to go.

There is obviously scope for improvement in Crowley’s place-kicking, while he might feel the same about his kicking from hand – as discussed in this piece on Ireland’s kicking, which also highlighted Crowley’s excellent restarts. He would probably like to be consistently getting more distance on his line kicks too.

There’s no doubt Crowley has the technical qualities and vision to be a top-class kicker in Test rugby and he is already delivering some superb kicking.

While his attacking touches have caught the eye, Crowley’s defensive application has perhaps been as impressive. He has an appetite to defend that many out-halves lack. Crowley appears to relish getting physically involved and is a proactive defender. He is not an out-half you attempt to hide in defence.

Crowley has made 34 tackles in this Six Nations and missed just four. Robbie Henshaw is the only Irish back who has made more tackles [35] than Crowley.

The Ireland out-half can contribute to choke efforts but generally brings a lower tackle technique to the Irish defence.

The fact that Crowley has played all 320 minutes of Ireland’s campaign so far helps his total tackle and carry stats to be high, of course, but he is clearly relishing the physical element of Test rugby. Lowe and Doris are the only two other players to have started and completed Ireland’s four games up to this point.

Crowley has even hit 21 Irish rucks and he brings a bit of venom in this area too. While it’s preferable to have your out-half on his feet directing play, even the playmakers should not shirk the collective breakdown duties. Crowley is only too happy to launch himself into rucks.

All of this stuff is quantifiable but the biggest lesson that Crowley is likely to have learned in this Six Nations is around the flow and momentum of games, the unique life they each take on. Defeats tend to teach players the most in this regard, so the 23-22 loss in Twickenham last weekend should prove valuable for Crowley.

He certainly had another fine game for Ireland but we know he’s a self-critical person who always looks for ways to improve. It seems likely he will have thought about how he and the other Irish leaders could have helped their team to grab more control of the game. Crowley is sure to have reviewed the game in-depth to understand how he could have helped his team wrestle tactical momentum in their favour more often.

Time in the saddle is valuable for any player and perhaps even more so for out-halves, who have to call all the plays and make split-second decisions for the entire 80 minutes. Theirs is a heavy responsibility but Crowley appears to be thriving with that pressure.

It would have been understandable and even expected that Crowley would have a notable dip outing at some stage in this Six Nations, given his relative inexperience, but that hasn’t been the case so far.

Maybe today against Scotland will prove to be the toughest test yet, but Crowley will be determined to finish an impressive first campaign as Ireland’s main man at number 10 by driving a convincing Irish performance and earning a winner’s medal.