JUST AS JACK Crowley shakes off one challenge, he steps into another. Having come through a difficult month in Ireland camp, where the out-half engaged in a highly-scrutinised battle for the 10 shirt with Sam Prendergast, Crowley is back on provincial duty with a Munster side in need of a lift.
This season will be a challenging one for the province. They parted ways with their head coach just a month into the season and their forwards coach soon followed. The squad are currently working with an interim head coach and interim forwards coach as a ‘performance consultant’ offers guidance, while IRFU S&C coaches have stepped in to fill the void left by a S&C coach absent on personal leave.
By any measure it is not an ideal situation but Munster need to tune out the noise and perform. They kick-off their Champions Cup campaign at home to Stade Francais today [KO 5.30pm, RTÉ 2/Premier Sports 1] and memories of last year’s opener against Bayonne should be at the forefront of their minds. That 17-17 draw in Limerick felt like a defeat and Munster’s progression from the pool stages was saved by a backs-to-the-wall victory away to Toulon. Winning their home games would make this campaign much less stressful for all involved.
As such, Munster need their Ireland internationals to lead the charge. Crowley will be central to that effort.
This is an important stage in the 24-year-old’s career. One of the things you often hear about Crowley is that he possesses strong mental resilience and self-belief. They are golden traits in any out-half and were surely put to the test across the November window. Every 10 will get knocked back somewhere along the way. It’s the what happens next that tends to define them.
“Unbelievable,” says Munster’s head of operations and interim head coach, Ian Costello.
“If we could look at young players and say what would be one of the things we’d look out for, someone’s ability to shake off making a mistake. He can stay present. That’s a remarkable trait and it stood to big time at the weekend (against Australia) and probably over the last couple of years as well.”
Munster centre Alex Nankivell has seen that mentality up close. As well as sharing a dressing room at Munster, the pair have spent time together outside of camp, heading to Portugal over the summer to do some pre-season work.
“It’s amazing to be honest,” Nankivell says.
Crowley with Alex Nankivell. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
“Obviously when you’re playing alongside him and training with him week to week, you go through the week and see what he goes through, or it might be a conversation that doesn’t go right when two people are being stubborn, and just the way he can kind of move on, he’s always focused on the next job and executing that.
“He never gets caught up on things and he’s never dwelling on mistakes, not that he makes many mistakes, but things like that that can happen in a game which put you under pressure.
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“It’s just his maturity, and obviously you’ve seen with the Ireland team and how much shit a guy playing 10, the biggest position in rugby in one of the best teams in the world, how much shit they can cop from people and how he still comes onto the field and doesn’t look like any of that’s happening and performs at his best.
But then also he has the ambition to keep trying. He doesn’t go into a shell or anything. So that’s the one thing I respect the most.”
The battle between Crowley, Prendergast and Ciarán Frawley should keep the Ireland out-half debate rolling but at provincial level, the Munster man is in a different situation to his rival 10s.
Prendergast and Frawley both want to be the Leinster 10 but neither have managed to make the jersey their own. Throw in the two Byrne brothers, Ross and Harry, and Leinster’s selection at out-half could continue to change throughout the season.
Over at Munster, Crowley will start all the big games when fit. He had already fought off the likes of Joey Carbery and Ben Healy before the season started, and his position currently looks more secure than ever. Billy Burns has yet to convince since joining from Ulster while 22-year-old Tony Butler is still learning the ropes at this level.
Crowley is already a leader in the Munster dressing room and has been for some time. When they province won the URC in 2022, he was 23 but already established as the starting out-half.
Nankivell joined the province that summer and was struck by Crowley’s maturity and composure.
“He’s awesome to play with. Obviously you’ve seen what he can do for Ireland. I thought that game (v Australia) he was outstanding. He’s just an intelligent player and he sees a lot and probably the coolest thing about him is just his drive to keep growing and keep helping the team.
“He’s calm for a guy still progressing through his career. He’s very mature for his age. So you just know that when you’re playing with him you can be really confident he’s going to nail his job and he’s going to give you everything you need and hopefully I can do the same thing to help each other and then help the team.
“He’s awesome to play with and I like his attacking flair, and I like a lot of attacking!”
With the November internationals out of the way, the level of competition around the Ireland 10 shirt should be the spur to drive Crowley’s performances over the Christmas period.
Crowley is battling with Sam Prendergast for the Ireland 10 shirt. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
He was out of form as part of an under-performing Munster team pre-November, but finished the month on a high with an impactful cameo off the bench against the Wallabies. Now Munster need to see the best of him in the weeks and months ahead.
“You won’t find anybody that works harder and thinks more about his game than him. So that’s a great foundation to kick on,” adds Costello.
“He’ll embrace the challenge, a bit like the weekend. I was so pleased for him to come off the bench and play so well because it would have been easy to go the other way. I think mentally that showed a lot of resilience and it showed that he’s a lot of belief in what he does and he’s come back in and hit the ground running.
“One of the objectives this week, we had a reintegration or realignment meeting at the start of the week with all the Irish players because we’ve talked about a few bits that we’ve looked to develop. We needed them immediately to understand what we’re trying to do and we took our time on Monday morning to get that right. And Jack’s one of the key leaders in the group as we drive that stuff.”
Today should be an opportunity for Munster to build on the momentum generated in last weekend’s URC win over the Lions. Stade can be dangerous on transition play but have been struggling in the Top 14 and sit four points off the bottom of the table having won just four of their opening 11 fixtures.
“They’re very like the Lions in terms of their identity,” Costello explains.
“They’re lethal off transition again, so we had the Lions scoring almost half of their tries from transition. Stade are right on half of their tries, and that’s an unbelievable stat. They’ve just got very, very dangerous back three players. As soon as you turn over the ball, as soon as you kick loosely there, they come to life.
“So I think from our point of view we’ll try to keep the ball in play, but we’ll try kicking on our terms, we’ll try to manage the tempo of the game, keep it as fast as we can, but with an element of control and if you don’t, they hurt you and like any French pack, they love to bring you into set piece battles as well.
“So they can go set piece battle or they can come to life around transition.”
MUNSTER: Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Dian Bleuler, Diarmuid Barron (capt), John Ryan; Evan O’Connell, Fineen Wycherley; Peter O’Mahony, Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Niall Scannell, Kieran Ryan, Stephen Archer, Tadhg Beirne, John Hodnett, Paddy Patterson, Billy Burns, Jack O’Donoghue.
STADE FRANCAIS: Joe Jonas; Charles Laloi, Joe Marchant, Pierre Boudehent, Samuel Ezeala; Zack Henry, Thibaut Motassi; Clément Castets, Lucas Peyresblanques, Francisco Gomez Kodela; Pierre-Henri Azagoh, Baptiste Pesenti; Pierre Huguet, Ryan Chapuis (capt), Yoan Tanga.
Replacements: Luka Petriashvili, Moses Alo-Emile, Paul Alo-Emile, Setareki Turagacoke, Andy Timo, Juan Martin Scelzo, Louis Foursans-Bourdette, Louis Carbonel.
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Ireland competition can spur Crowley to be driving force for Munster
JUST AS JACK Crowley shakes off one challenge, he steps into another. Having come through a difficult month in Ireland camp, where the out-half engaged in a highly-scrutinised battle for the 10 shirt with Sam Prendergast, Crowley is back on provincial duty with a Munster side in need of a lift.
This season will be a challenging one for the province. They parted ways with their head coach just a month into the season and their forwards coach soon followed. The squad are currently working with an interim head coach and interim forwards coach as a ‘performance consultant’ offers guidance, while IRFU S&C coaches have stepped in to fill the void left by a S&C coach absent on personal leave.
By any measure it is not an ideal situation but Munster need to tune out the noise and perform. They kick-off their Champions Cup campaign at home to Stade Francais today [KO 5.30pm, RTÉ 2/Premier Sports 1] and memories of last year’s opener against Bayonne should be at the forefront of their minds. That 17-17 draw in Limerick felt like a defeat and Munster’s progression from the pool stages was saved by a backs-to-the-wall victory away to Toulon. Winning their home games would make this campaign much less stressful for all involved.
As such, Munster need their Ireland internationals to lead the charge. Crowley will be central to that effort.
This is an important stage in the 24-year-old’s career. One of the things you often hear about Crowley is that he possesses strong mental resilience and self-belief. They are golden traits in any out-half and were surely put to the test across the November window. Every 10 will get knocked back somewhere along the way. It’s the what happens next that tends to define them.
“Unbelievable,” says Munster’s head of operations and interim head coach, Ian Costello.
“If we could look at young players and say what would be one of the things we’d look out for, someone’s ability to shake off making a mistake. He can stay present. That’s a remarkable trait and it stood to big time at the weekend (against Australia) and probably over the last couple of years as well.”
Munster centre Alex Nankivell has seen that mentality up close. As well as sharing a dressing room at Munster, the pair have spent time together outside of camp, heading to Portugal over the summer to do some pre-season work.
“It’s amazing to be honest,” Nankivell says.
“Obviously when you’re playing alongside him and training with him week to week, you go through the week and see what he goes through, or it might be a conversation that doesn’t go right when two people are being stubborn, and just the way he can kind of move on, he’s always focused on the next job and executing that.
“He never gets caught up on things and he’s never dwelling on mistakes, not that he makes many mistakes, but things like that that can happen in a game which put you under pressure.
“It’s just his maturity, and obviously you’ve seen with the Ireland team and how much shit a guy playing 10, the biggest position in rugby in one of the best teams in the world, how much shit they can cop from people and how he still comes onto the field and doesn’t look like any of that’s happening and performs at his best.
The battle between Crowley, Prendergast and Ciarán Frawley should keep the Ireland out-half debate rolling but at provincial level, the Munster man is in a different situation to his rival 10s.
Prendergast and Frawley both want to be the Leinster 10 but neither have managed to make the jersey their own. Throw in the two Byrne brothers, Ross and Harry, and Leinster’s selection at out-half could continue to change throughout the season.
Over at Munster, Crowley will start all the big games when fit. He had already fought off the likes of Joey Carbery and Ben Healy before the season started, and his position currently looks more secure than ever. Billy Burns has yet to convince since joining from Ulster while 22-year-old Tony Butler is still learning the ropes at this level.
Crowley is already a leader in the Munster dressing room and has been for some time. When they province won the URC in 2022, he was 23 but already established as the starting out-half.
Nankivell joined the province that summer and was struck by Crowley’s maturity and composure.
“He’s awesome to play with. Obviously you’ve seen what he can do for Ireland. I thought that game (v Australia) he was outstanding. He’s just an intelligent player and he sees a lot and probably the coolest thing about him is just his drive to keep growing and keep helping the team.
“He’s calm for a guy still progressing through his career. He’s very mature for his age. So you just know that when you’re playing with him you can be really confident he’s going to nail his job and he’s going to give you everything you need and hopefully I can do the same thing to help each other and then help the team.
“He’s awesome to play with and I like his attacking flair, and I like a lot of attacking!”
With the November internationals out of the way, the level of competition around the Ireland 10 shirt should be the spur to drive Crowley’s performances over the Christmas period.
He was out of form as part of an under-performing Munster team pre-November, but finished the month on a high with an impactful cameo off the bench against the Wallabies. Now Munster need to see the best of him in the weeks and months ahead.
“You won’t find anybody that works harder and thinks more about his game than him. So that’s a great foundation to kick on,” adds Costello.
“He’ll embrace the challenge, a bit like the weekend. I was so pleased for him to come off the bench and play so well because it would have been easy to go the other way. I think mentally that showed a lot of resilience and it showed that he’s a lot of belief in what he does and he’s come back in and hit the ground running.
“One of the objectives this week, we had a reintegration or realignment meeting at the start of the week with all the Irish players because we’ve talked about a few bits that we’ve looked to develop. We needed them immediately to understand what we’re trying to do and we took our time on Monday morning to get that right. And Jack’s one of the key leaders in the group as we drive that stuff.”
Today should be an opportunity for Munster to build on the momentum generated in last weekend’s URC win over the Lions. Stade can be dangerous on transition play but have been struggling in the Top 14 and sit four points off the bottom of the table having won just four of their opening 11 fixtures.
“They’re very like the Lions in terms of their identity,” Costello explains.
“They’re lethal off transition again, so we had the Lions scoring almost half of their tries from transition. Stade are right on half of their tries, and that’s an unbelievable stat. They’ve just got very, very dangerous back three players. As soon as you turn over the ball, as soon as you kick loosely there, they come to life.
“So I think from our point of view we’ll try to keep the ball in play, but we’ll try kicking on our terms, we’ll try to manage the tempo of the game, keep it as fast as we can, but with an element of control and if you don’t, they hurt you and like any French pack, they love to bring you into set piece battles as well.
“So they can go set piece battle or they can come to life around transition.”
MUNSTER: Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Dian Bleuler, Diarmuid Barron (capt), John Ryan; Evan O’Connell, Fineen Wycherley; Peter O’Mahony, Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Niall Scannell, Kieran Ryan, Stephen Archer, Tadhg Beirne, John Hodnett, Paddy Patterson, Billy Burns, Jack O’Donoghue.
STADE FRANCAIS: Joe Jonas; Charles Laloi, Joe Marchant, Pierre Boudehent, Samuel Ezeala; Zack Henry, Thibaut Motassi; Clément Castets, Lucas Peyresblanques, Francisco Gomez Kodela; Pierre-Henri Azagoh, Baptiste Pesenti; Pierre Huguet, Ryan Chapuis (capt), Yoan Tanga.
Replacements: Luka Petriashvili, Moses Alo-Emile, Paul Alo-Emile, Setareki Turagacoke, Andy Timo, Juan Martin Scelzo, Louis Foursans-Bourdette, Louis Carbonel.
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU).
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