“Jack did pretty well, didn’t he?” Ireland’s fly-half situation at the moment feels so volatile that even a measured bit of praise like that from Andy Farrell for Jack Crowley, after his performance off the bench in the win over Italy, can send the country into a spin.
Much as Ireland would love to have some clarity over the long-term successor to Johnny Sexton, the tussle between Crowley and Sam Prendergast remains relentless. Prendergast has started the first two games and the bad has outweighed the good. Too inconsistent, too error-prone, lacking confidence, defensively suspect.
Prendergast’s ceiling might be higher as a talent, and you could argue he has a more expansive passing game while also being three years younger than Crowley, but reaching those heights is taking longer than many expected.
And so on came Crowley, at the core of Ireland’s best attacking moment in this Six Nationswith the sweeping build-up for Robert Baloucoune’s try, flickers of the old Ireland with their multi-phase attack who scorched to the top of the world rankings. Crowley’s desire to carry up flat to the gain line, to make defences stutter before flicking out late passes, stood out when he started in the first game of the post-Sexton era at the start of the 2024 Six Nations, creating a try for Tadhg Beirne, and has remained a consistent trait.
Sure, Crowley made some errors, unforgivably for Test level kicking a penalty dead and missing touch as Ireland hunted a late bonus-point try. “He’s gutted about the kick into the corner, obviously, but he did a lot more than that for us,” said Farrell. “He did a lot more good for us than harm, and he can be proud of his performance today.”
Crowley, the pride of Bandon RFC, 20 miles west of Cork, now starts on Saturday, while Prendergast does not even make the squad.
It is not overstating things to suggest that this debate between Crowley and Prendergast, one from Leinster and the other from Munster, has divided the nation, with the abuse for each player from their respective corners reaching such levels that Farrell this week called for the “keyboard warriors” to stop, to ask the questions: “‘Are we Irish? Do we want people to do well or not?’”
“It can be tough for these kids,” added Farrell. He has spoken about social media abuse towards players before, when his own son, Owen, was sent off for England during the warm-up matches before the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Now the Ireland head coach has had to watch his two fly-halves go through the same onslaught.
“It can be tough for these kids. I’ve seen it, to-ing and fro-ing with both of them, and both of them are strong characters. It takes a lot to break kids like that. But I’ve seen it affect people, you know? So the keyboard warriors on Twitter, or whatever you call it now, need to cop on and try and help these kids.”
Bernard Jackman, the former Ireland international and now highly-respected pundit, provided more context about the debate between Crowley and Prendergast on YouTube show, The Rugby Bunker.
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“It’s become horrifically toxic. It's actually divided the country, nearly, way beyond punditry or debate,” said Jackman, highlighting that the issue goes beyond the two players and is linked to the resentment towards Leinster from other provinces.
“There is a lot of anger and apathy towards the Irish Rugby Football Union for what is perceived as Leinster being supported above the other provinces. Our model is quite simple. If you've got the most central contracts, you will get the most money, and Leinster have the most central contracts.”
The move of RG Snyman from Munster to Leinster is another factor, adding to that sense of "animosity" which is then being taken out on the players, especially Leinster’s Prendergast. The “high ceiling” tag suggests outstanding potential, and Prendergast has shown that he can be an outstanding attacker from fly-half. But when the overall evidence of that on the field is limited, then patience begins to wear thin, particularly when Crowley is there but also Harry Byrne, part of the squad and pushing hard at Leinster, and the more versatile Ciarán Frawley, who makes the bench at Allianz Stadium.
One of Crowley’s qualities has always been that he is rarely flustered. He has that physicality Sexton so often showed, unafraid to take the game to a defence.
“Sometimes you see people come from the back and have nothing to lose, get over themselves and just rip in,” Farrell said on Thursday, implying that the coaching staff had seen that in Crowley.
Whether he can deliver a performance to silence the fly-half debate for the rest of this Six Nations is another matter.
Photograph by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile