LONG READ Why Jack Crowley should be starting in the Ireland shirt this Autumn

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. So sang Joni Mitchell and it could be attributed to Munster. It took a decade for them to find a fitting replacement for Ronan O’Gara. There had been Keatley, Bleyendaal, Healy, Hanrahan, Carbery, and plenty more, but it was 10 years after O’Gara hung up his boots before someone finally came along and made the 10 jersey his own. The drop goal was just an exclamation point.

The legends that helped build Munster’s legacy had been waiting, too. As early as 2019, long before the young lad from Cork made his Munster bow, Mick Galwey raved about this ‘very exciting player’. Alan Quinlan told me likewise, around the same time. “This Crowley lad,” he confided, “he could be the one.”

Jack Crowley made that senior Munster debut five years ago, against Edinburgh, but still had a mountain to climb. Munster were still stuck in a cycle of hopes up, hopes dashed. In 2023, Crowley made it to the top – sinking Leinster with a drop goal in the United Rugby Championship semi-finals, before helping his province end a 12-year trophy drought in the Grand Final.

Six months before that URC title win, Crowley had been drafted in at short notice to replace Johnny Sexton for an Autumn Internationals clash with Australia. Sexton’s calf tightened in the warm-up and, so late was the call, he had to peel off his 10 jersey and hand it to his 22-year-old deputy. “I thought the kid stood up tall,” said Andy Farrell, after his side’s 13-10 win. Peter O’Mahony had even higher praise for his fellow Corkman.

“It’s a big ask for a young man to come in and play 70 minutes against a team as good as that, and to come out on top,” said O’Mahony. “Look, it’s easy to see – he’s a good kid. He’s hungry to learn, he’s hugely ambitious, he’s no fear of asking questions or saying the wrong thing. And it’s refreshing to see, someone at that age getting stuck in, enjoying it and putting a performance like that in.”

To cap it all off, O’Gara would post a picture of him and a young Crowley, back in 2011, to social media and declare, ‘He dreamt of today for a very long time. Well done’. This was the same O’Gara that tried bringing Crowley to La Rochelle, in 2021, when he was battling with Joey Carbery and Ben Healy for Munster minutes.

It was all lining up nicely. By the summer of 2023, Crowley was the undisputed back-up to Johnny Sexton. When Ireland exited at the World Cup quarter final stages, Crowley’s only consolation for not seeing a minute of action in that game was the assurance his time was coming. Farrell started him in all five games of the 2024 Six Nations. He came through a mighty test in Marseille, as France were downed 38-17, scored his first Ireland try against Italy, a week later, and never looked back.

The squad, in South Africa, also featured a young fly-half with only six senior starts to his name – Sam Prendergast. The 21-year-old did not get a minute in either Test against the Springboks but his time was coming.

Ireland would go on to retain their Six Nations title with a home win over Scotland. Crowley then started both Tests in the drawn series, away to South Africa. He had fine moments in each game and marshalled the team well against teak-tough opponents. It was all standing to him, and yet anomalies were starting to crop up.

The hero of that drawn series was Ciarán Frawley, who struck two drop goals in the final 11 minutes to give Ireland a 25-24 victory. Frawley can cover fly-half, both centre positions and full-back but, buoyed by his match-winning deeds, had designs on both Leinster and Ireland’s 10 jerseys.

That squad in South Africa, also featured a young fly-half with only six senior starts to his name – Sam Prendergast. The 21-year-old did not get a minute in either Test against the Springboks but his time was coming.

In May 2022, I headed to Galway to interview Cian Prendergast. We spoke about life growing up in Kildare, heading West to keep his rugby dreams alive and his Ireland ambitions. The following day, we were both in Dublin, as Cian picked up the Young Player of the Year prize at the Rugby Players Ireland awards ceremony. This was a huge night for the Connacht back-row but he was already being asked questions about his younger brother. Sam would make his Ireland U20s debut, two months later, and catch the eye in wins over England and Scotland. He would lead the U20s to a Six Nations Grand Slam, the following season, and make his senior Leinster debut.

Many in the media, fanbase and that cohort of former players turned pundits, figured, by November 2024, that Sam Prendergast would have to play understudy in Test rugby for a while. It started off that way, when Farrell selected Crowley to start against New Zealand, with Frawley in reserve. That game was a turgid, stop-start affair and the All Blacks did wonders in slowing Ireland down. Crowley did okay, like so many in green, that night, but Ireland still led 13-12 when his number was flashed. Frawley had a tough run of it and all but ended his chances of being Ireland’s frontline 10.

When you guys feel like he’s been dropped, he’s not. And when you guys feel like he’s pissed off, he’s not. He’s a team player. He’s a team player and he gets the bigger picture himself.

Andy Farrell

Prendergast made his Test debut a week later off the bench against Argentina. The game was 22-19 to Ireland when he came on, for the final 20 minutes, and finished 22-19. Still, anyone that was there that night would tell you that Prendergast played a much higher line than Crowley and showed off a bold, varied passing game. It certainly got Andy Farrell’s attention, with Prendergast wearing 10 for the wins over Fiji and Australia.

Farrell was asked, before he headed on his British & Irish Lions coaching sabbatical, how hard Crowley had taken being ‘dropped’. He bristled, before answering, “I know you guys think so because you’re not in it. I appreciate that you feel he is like that, but Jack has just been himself within the squad. He gets it, like. You know? People need a chance to try and kick on to show what they’ve got. He’s had that. So, when you guys feel like he’s been dropped, he’s not. And when you guys feel like he’s pissed off, he’s not. He’s a team player. He’s a team player and he gets the bigger picture himself.”

The dye had been cast, though, and interim Ireland head coach Simon Easterby followed Farrell’s lead. Prendergast started the first four games of the 2025 Six Nations. He looked good against Scotland but had shaky moments in his other three starts, especially when France came to Dublin. When Crowley got to start against Italy, Ireland, as a collective, put in their worst display of the campaign and easily could have lost.

Crowley was excellent in Munster’s Champions Cup Round of 16 win over La Rochelle but could not do much to stem the Bordeaux tide, in the quarter finals. Prendergast made it to the semi-finals with Leinster but had another day to forget, as Northampton stunned the favourites to set up a final date with eventual champions Bordeaux. Both men missed out on Farrell’s Lions squad and shared one Ireland start apiece on a low-key summer tour to Georgia and Portugal.

Prendergast would have relished the opportunity to prove some doubters wrong, as Leinster started their URC season in South Africa. He succeeded only in proving many of them right, with suspect defence in a Stormers thumping, and missed kicks and an intercept for a David Kriel try, in defeat to the Bulls. “He’s learning on the go,” Leinster coach Leo Cullen reasoned.

My opinion has not changed since the start of last season. Crowley should be Ireland’s starting No 10 and Prendergast can gain experience in the back-up role, and by starting against the likes of Japan, Italy and Wales.

Crowley, on the other hand, is doing just about all that has been asked of him. He looked sharp in Munster’s season-opening win, away to Scarlets, and his 76^th minute drop goal proved the match-winner against Cardiff. He also looked lively in attack, in both matches, and two brilliant kicks in the space of four seconds almost delivered a super try for Dan Kelly.

From much of the media coverage, this week, Saturday’s league encounter at Croke Park is being teed up as Crowley vs. Pendergast, with Leinster vs. Munster as the sub-plot. Brian O’Driscoll, speaking on Off The Ball, commented, “If you put Crowley’s defence and Prendergast’s attack together, you’d have a really, really great player on your hands.”

My opinion has not changed since the start of last season. Crowley should be Ireland’s starting No 10 and Prendergast can gain experience in the back-up role, and by starting against the likes of Japan, Italy and Wales.

No matter how well Crowley goes at Croke Park, my gut feeling is that Farrell is sticking with Prendergast. Farrell was frustrated with some of Ireland’s attacking morass, in 2024, and he seems to favour Prendergast as the best man to really threaten opposition defences, with that higher line and passing range. He is well aware that the 22-year-old needs to improve his defence but he feels the positives outweigh the negatives.

Joe Schmidt famously rumbled the All Blacks in November 2016 by blitzing them with all-out attack in a 40-29 win. Farrell will have that in the back of his mind when he selects for the Soldier Field rematch, and Crowley may, unfortunately for him, be viewed as an option that is too safe to take.