Ronan O'Gara: Too early to be pumping Jack Crowley's and Munster's tyres 

Jack Crowley has reached a phase of his career where he has seen a lot of the world, and not all of it has been mountains and lakes. He’s at that right age now.

QUESTIONS AT TEN: Munster's Jack Crowley delivered a statement performance for the province at Croke Park - 'his kicking was at a level I haven’t seen too often, if at all, from him', says Ronan O'Gara. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

However hard you work to stay true to yourself, there will always be unavoidable compromise. Winning games makes a lot of things right, it truly does, but the office in-tray doesn’t miraculously disappear either.

Being the head coach, director of rugby, whatever you will, involves meetings, more people, more people management. Delegation is a wonderful concept but putting your shape on something usually involves you putting your shape on something. There are occasions when it would be better to delegate stuff to assistants and cede control. Sometimes it’s doable, sometimes not.

This is an internal conflict I’m grappling with this season. Striving to take more of a holistic view at La Rochelle while not being ready or able to sacrifice time on the pitch with the players. Trouble is, there are only so many hours in a week. A summer Down Under, and time spent with the Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart, has informed the fact that I don’t need to be pumping the players’ tyres for the Monday morning debrief after beating Montauban. I’ll start ramping it up Thursday and Friday before we go to Lyon this weekend. 

There’s another human equation too. La Rochelle has four assistant coaches and three specialists, each looking to make an imprint with their minutes, but it’s not feasible for everyone to get their slice of the week. Otherwise, sessions become interminable and messages get mixed. Now you’re managing the human beings managing the human beings, but when the ship sinks, the skipper is the one who misses out on the lifeboats. 

That’s not lost on me.

What I have to afford the greatest primacy to is taking more control of the game tactics. And ensuring that, whoever is messaging, that they do not get lost in translation. That’s the constant agitation between doing it the way you believe to be right and passing on message delivery. It’s a constant pull and drag in your own head. Some are better at presenting than others, some coaches prefer one-on-ones, but you can’t individualise 40 discussions. How do you tie up the message for the group in that scenario?

I’ve been open about some things in these columns, and I am not dishing any trade secrets by emphasising the benefits of simplicity, especially on the road, as we are again on Saturday.

WHICH IS a nice segue into what I believe is a similar philosophy closer to home. I saw enough in Munster’s win at Croke Park last Saturday to recognise the fast-twitch judgements that have been circulating since. Eighty minutes of accurate Jack Crowley. Eighty minutes of rusty Leinster. Should we arrive at definitive verdicts already?

It was first day out for a number of Leinster’s Lions, and no matter how good a player is, you need a few games to find form. For Munster, it was a fantastic, old school, getting-in-their-faces performance. Two tries, though, off zero rucks, which isn’t to imply their luck was in on the day, because there was a delightful one-off play by Tom Farrell and a Ethan Coughlan intercept, but they were both low percentages opportunities. Some days they go for you.

The biggest pleaser from a Munster standpoint was the way they constructed the performance to do that away to Leinster in Croke Park. It’s rare you see that happen. They had a basic plan, their kicking was smart, they hassled, and they hung tough. But for folk to jump in and start writing a new book for Irish rugby is rash.

In a wider context, the Ireland challenge looking at 2027 points to a lot of the players who don’t have age on their side and have disappointments in their side satchel – with Ireland, with Leinster. Where France and South Africa have a huge advantage over Ireland is that their depth chart is way more interesting. A quartet of experienced centres is not a handicap but you have to stir a rookie or some fresh, young talent into that to get the best out of Aki, Ringrose and Henshaw. If it’s Sam Prendergast at ten, he will still require that experience around him, whereas Jack Crowley has reached a phase of his career where he has seen a lot of the world, and not all of it has been mountains and lakes. He’s at that right age.

Jack’s had a good look at himself in the summer, and figured that it can’t always be about (not) having a dominant pack in front of him. His line kicking, his metres per penalty, simply not good enough - and there were other things. It’s one performance, so let’s not hang out the bunting yet, but he got his kicking last Saturday in Croke Park to a level I haven’t seen too often, if at all, from him.

No more than his Munster colleagues, Jack is sick to his b*llocks hearing about Leinster and that transitioned into his Ireland experiences. He is raging against that. That is normal. He changed the ebb of the tide last week, he gave the public and the media a different storyline to contemplate. This was a different version of Jack Crowley.

La Rochelle have four players included in the French squad for the autumn internationals. Same as Munster with Ireland, but La Rochelle doesn’t have to be looking at 21 heads from another Top 14 club. This was about more than the out halves. Last time, Leinster put 30-odd on Munster and Jack was on a backwards footing. So, you can’t expect him to do anything with his pack in retreat, right? This time, Jack takes control of the controllables in an 80-minute performance, but the power of momentum swept him along too. As a ten, when your team rolls, you roll. Everything – tempo, flow and vision improves.

Because La Rochelle isn’t yet functioning the way I’d like it to, or the players would like it to, you tend lose the 50-50 decisions on national selection, be it squad or matchday. Does Jack Crowley now get the 60-40 nod for November 1 against the All Blacks? Perhaps. But the easy mistake would be to pigeon-hole Andy Farrell with the volatile public mood. Munster’s win should have little sway in the player selection meeting for Ireland’s management. Andy is his own man, these guys have always played for Ireland – Croke Park was Leo’s problem, not Farrell’s.

Form will be a consideration. But the first team talk for Farrell is sorted. Right lads, (in blue), your last game was not up to the standard we expect, but I’ve seen you perform so many times (in green) that we must make allowances for that too. Ireland can get any sort of a tune they like out of what happened in Croke Park, and the head coach is especially good at getting the best out of people. Folk are quick to forget that Jack had fine Six Nations outings for Ireland and was duly rewarded. That he was poor at stages too. There were games for Munster and Ireland where he was not at test level standard. Munster fans are quick to forget that.

The most useful takeaway from last Saturday for Crowley is he now has a north star to measure other performances by over the season. What it looks like to have a good performance at club level - not at test level, mind.

This is the bar, this is what my preparation looked like, I transferred it to the game where I excelled and the team excelled. I need to be able to know when the pressure comes that I can deliver that, or better still, enhance it and make things better.

The portents are encouraging for Jack and for Clayton McMillan’s new Munster. Connacht could put them on their backsides damn quick. The Croke Park conclusions should go no further than that.