LONG READ Crowley and Byrne help Farrell's No.10 masterplan start to come together

Positively glowing after a record Test win over Australia last November, Andy Farrell was asked about the huge roar that greeted Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley, around the hour mark. Prendergast was being cheered off after his best game in a green jersey, while support for Crowley is consistently strong. “It’s great, isn’t it?” Farrell began, with one of his regular questions he needs no reply to.

“Honestly,” the Ireland coach continued, “I know you guys think this is a two-horse race, but Harry Byrne’s not sitting down, either. Ciarán Frawley is not sitting down… I get that these two (Prendergast and Crowley) are having a go at each other, and are playing really well but they’re good mates and really good professionals. We’re interested in seeing everyone compete… it isn’t just the two lads.”

A few weeks after that, with the Autumn Nations Cup wrapped and Ireland’s cough somewhat softened by a punishing defeat to South Africa, Johnny Sexton told me a similar tale. “We need to get behind both of them, because we’re going to need both, and probably more, for the next World Cup,” Sexton stated. “We’re going to need three or four lads fighting for it.”

For all of that talk, Harry Byrne’s only minutes in a green jersey this season have come in an ‘A’ team win over Spain, five months ago. He went into the 2026 Six Nations in good club form. Many fans and pundits, including Andrew Trimble and Rob Kearney, called on him to get the 10 jersey. As it played out, Prendergast got two starts, Crowley three and Frawley was back-up for the final three championship matches.

Byrne made the short hop back to Leinster and reclaimed the 10 jersey for a URC victory over Scarlets, with an eye on the Champions Cup fixtures. He, like others that had returned from Ireland duty, was decent but not great. Against Edinburgh and Sale in the last fortnight, Byrne was very good and carried out his role with little fuss. He nailed 13 of his 14 kicks, kept the defences honest with darts of his own, but was very much about finding his key carriers and strike-runners. He set up Jimmy O’Brien for his first try against Edinburgh and was defensively solid in that game. His attacking play was solid against Sale, but he missed five of his 11 tackle attempts. If that was Prendergast, those stats would have been hollered from rooftops and social media accounts. There is a reason teams send their big units into the guys wearing nine and 10, but Toulon will have noted Byrne’s poor tackle completion numbers from the quarter-final.

Anyone who has watched Prendergast play in recent months will know how his confidence has taken a hit, and how it has filtered into his game.

Heading into the final months of the season, the 10 debate is over at Leinster. If Byrne remains fit – he is nearing 1,000 minutes played for a season for the first time in his career – he gets No.10 for the crunch encounters. “Harry has such control over the group,” observed his Leinster team-mate, Scott Penny. “His voice is so demanding and he’s very physical as well, for a 10. He puts in shots, he’s happy to carry over backs and forwards, he’s a strong lad. He’s having a great run of games and he’s full of confidence. It’s great for the club, having Harry playing so well.”

Byrne wresting control of the Leinster attack has been another blow to Prendergast. Anyone who has watched him play in recent months will know how his confidence has taken a hit, and how it has filtered into his game. He was incredibly shaky in the Six Nations win over Italy, and did not feature again in the championship. Prendergast missed out on the match-day squads for the last two Champions Cup games, but starts against Ulster on Friday.

The 23-year-old is back serving his out-half apprenticeship, two years after being fast-tracked to head office. “Sam needs a bit of confidence,” Peter O’Mahony commented, during the Six Nations. “He needs an arm around the shoulder. People need to look after him, like they do Jack.”

These young men are so often built up to believe they are bullet-proof. At 20 and 21, they need to walk into experienced squads and call the shots. We so often hear of 10s that take over and ‘run the week’, and how that can have a big bearing on their future prospects. Conor Murray has spoken about how good Prendergast was at having that cock-sure, confident nature, and how impressed senior Ireland players were with his leadership abilities, at such a young age. However, when Prendergast’s own game started to get picked apart, that façade was shattered. It will take some time, and support, to build him back up.

Byrne knows all about how the game can shove you to one side, at the very top level. Farrell tried to talk him into a move to Connacht to get more minutes at 10. When he refused, the Ireland coach openly questioned his decision, during the 2024 tour to South Africa. He ended up getting a short-term move to Bristol for the second half of last season, in order to get meaningful game-time and rebuild that confident aura all 10s need. There is talk now of possibly sending Prendergast away on a similar, short-term deal. He should stay on with Leinster, and build from there. Right now, I would also be in favour of him missing Ireland’s summer Tests and taking the off-season months to work on building up his body, and defensive nous, for the rigours of elite-level rugby.

Leinster ran in 13 tries and scored 92 points against Edinburgh and Sale, and yet few are happy with where their game is at. Leinster are frustrated, themselves. We are still awaiting that game where they open a can of whoop-ass and run up a crazy score by playing cut-loose, ruthless rugby.

During a recent episode of The Good, The Bad & The Football, former Manchester United serial winners Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt spoke of the expectations of playing during the highly successful Alex Fergusion era. “It was the fear that drove you on,” Scholes admitted. “All the time, you were nothing but scared. When people say ‘Did you enjoy your football?’ Not really. I enjoyed it when we were 5-0 up… other than that, it’s not enjoyable because you are worried all the time.” I thought of Leinster as I listened to that clip. From 2008 until 2021, they won seven league titles, four Champions Cups and a Challenge Cup. They carry that legacy, and pressure, of success but other sides in recent years have levelled up and surpassed them. Every season, they are one of Europe’s top four sides, but that is not enough. Not for Leinster.

The stand-out success of this season has been Crowley. He has shoved to the front of the Test queue while being one of few on-field positives during a tough Munster season.

As for that risky Farrell and Sexton masterplan, it is starting to come together. Byrne is having the best Leinster season of his career. Crowley looked assured in the final Six Nations stretch. Frawley is back in from the cold, and Connacht-bound in the summer. Jack Murphy is impressing at Ulster, in only his second season of pro rugby, while the province are bringing in Irish-qualified Jamie Benson from Harlequins. Prendergast is the major glitch, for now, although former Ireland U20 out-half Charlie Tector is only getting decent minutes at inside centre, and is down Leinster’s pecking order.

The stand-out success of this season has been Crowley. He has shoved to the front of the Test queue while being one of few on-field positives during a tough Munster season. On Wednesday, the 26-year-old was up for media duties as part of his ambassadorial role with Pinergy Energy. He sat for several one-on-one and ‘round-table’ interviews, and spoke with clarity and empathy about Munster’s on- and off-field struggles. The province is seeking voluntary redundancies as it looks to navigate uncertain times and financial constraints.

“It’s a challenging time for everyone,” said Crowley, “but that’s something that’s going to motivate us to make those people that are maybe going through tough times as well to be proud to be a Munster person, and do the best we possibly can for them, because that’s our responsibility.”

In March 2023, Crowley was part of a Munster team who’s season hung by a fraying thread, after a home defeat to Glasgow. They lay outside the URC’s top eight and, ahead of a daunting, two-game stint in South Africa, looked set to miss out on the knock-out stages and Champions Cup qualification. “This is probably going to be the worst ever season in Munster’s history,” lamented my old podcast colleague, Jason Hennessy on House of Rugby.

As we now know, Munster returned from South Africa with a draw and a win. They made the final cut, then went on the road to beat Glasgow, Leinster and Stormers to win the URC title. I asked Crowley if the squad – currently seventh in the league and out of all cup competitions – was drawing on the spirit of ’23 to finish this season on a high.

“Anything’s possible, 100%,” he insisted. “There’s great belief in the group, there’s great motivation in the group, and we certainly believe that there’s something quite (special) possible, you know, and it starts with this week. Genuinely, it starts this week [away to Benetton on Saturday]. We deliver a performance, who knows? We may be having a laugh about this next season, when we go great or what-not, but we’ll see.”

One thing that struck me from that Crowley chat is how deeply he thinks about the game, and articulates that thought process. Ireland have already given Craig Casey, his Munster half-back partner, a couple of starts as captain. To me, Crowley looks even better suited to the role. He may well succeed Tadhg Beirne as Munster captain in the next 18 months, but he ticks nearly every box to lead his country.

All part of the masterplan…