Ronan O'Gara: Suddenly, Jack Crowley is Ireland’s north star again
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN: Ireland's Jack Crowley Tadhg Furlong at Dublin Airport prior to their departure to London for the Six Nations match against England. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
CRITIQUES are harsher, not by nature, by reality. I watched that Italy test match back and there were aching signs of a young lad all at sea.
There are minimum test standards. I know what it’s like to be out there, stripped of belief and self-worth. I lost my confidence after 100 caps, but I had a pretty long career for ballast at a bad time. Sam Prendergast doesn’t have that sub-floor. He’s lost his bearings early and Ireland management has done him and his future a long-term favour by removing Sam from the cauldron of test rugby. Management hands are all over this. They need to be. There are discussions: what’s the best course to right this ship, intervention or brazen it out? When even the simple decision are complicated, extraction is the only remedy.
Prendergast was an international before he’d played in Europe. The URC is no development track for someone who aims to play test rugby. There’s an apprenticeship and it goes through Europe. The chasm is too great otherwise. Sam doesn’t look ready because he isn’t ready. If Italy had won in Dublin – and there is no way you could have said they’d were lucky if they had – imagine the venom that would have rained down on the starting out half and would have moved a debacle into a career-threatening tailspin.
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Missing penalty kicks is not the cause, it’s the effect. Everything about Sam’s game now is off-kilter, from kicking to body language to set up before the ball, attempting to tackle, ability to take a gap. I get it. It’s a guy who’s there in body but he’s a ghost. We’ve left it here many times - confidence is the silver bullet. The guy who can summon a display of authority, certainty and accuracy is king in the world of the small margins at the highest levels. And that goes beyond sport.
Even if my internals are screaming, how can I feel good and do good and make my team do better? Bang a spiral to the corner, one bounce, lineout five metres out. Forwards trotting forward with smiles. But a spiral for Prendergast is the moon just now. Suddenly, Jack Crowley is Ireland’s north star again.
For every action there is a consequence. Ireland’s management have been all in on Prendergast. Now put yourself in Jack Crowley’s shoes – for weeks and months, he’s been stressing ‘I’m here lads, select me’. What happened last Saturday might feel like 'I told ye so' if Crowley was of that ilk, but he’s not. But it’s copper-fastened his view of the world, that he’s the main for the ten shirt. How good am I looking to you right now?
And that’s the key bit this week. How does the Ireland management instil in Crowley the sense of belief that every player craves. You. Are. Our. Guy.
If someone doesn’t believe in you, hours on the training field can feel like years. I’ve done it myself on the training field. Scott Robertson was best of the best at it - how you set up young guys to succeed is how you look at them, how you engage, how you smile at them. Transferring those positive vibes. But if you’re cold and detached, it’s a tough needle to thread. So the starter breaks down Tuesday in training, you throw the bib to the guy replacing him and he knows immediately from that action and behaviour that you don’t really want him in there, you don’t really see him as The Guy. You’ve said nothing, but he is able to read the messages. Jack Crowley may be showered in love, I don’t know. But he wouldn’t be human if he hasn’t felt spurned on some level.
The context of where Ireland are at, and what the environment is like, is key. Jettisoning a lad from the match day 23 after starting pivot the week before is something Fabien Galthie might try in a thriving environment. But Ireland are like La Rochelle, and trying to set up a guy to succeed only to see him eaten up because he’s not operating in a thriving environment. The team’s performances will always cast a large shadow over a newbie’s scope to improve.
In the French national team, you can bring in Pau’s Émilien Gailleton and Fabien Brau-Boirie, and their club colleague Theo Attissogbe, but whether they are playing or not, France win. They are excellent prospects already, but thriving from the comfort of an armchair to a large extent because the French TGV is hitting a whole new level of speeds. Mathieu Jalibert has been a wow, but he has never played more on the front foot than with the dominant Les Bleus?
Ireland’s out half was poorer at home to Italy than away to France and that’s saying something. But it’s not all on Sam. You can develop players in a winning team, but Ireland as a whole – irrespective of number ten – has lost confidence. That’s not having a go, that’s fact. Those inside may describe that as disingenuous but we are not stupid as a rugby-watch public either. Ireland are struggling to put air in the tyres these days, irrespective of the opposition. The match against France wasn’t even close. The La Rochelle team now is not the same as it was three years ago, I accept that but for eighteen months I was in denial.
Ditto Ireland.
Logic would indicate that Crowley gets the jersey now for the foreseeable – as long as he doesn’t execute another of those puzzling shanks that stunned watchers at the Aviva Stadium. From a few metres out and from the sideline, it ended up going out of play at the far end of the in-goal area, which is some feat of dexterity.
From where he was standing, all he can achieve is a five metre lineout anyway so he was hardly trying to nudge it down to the goal line as that would serve no purpose. If he had stood square to the sideline and put it straight in he was only seven metres out. It seems to be a basic misunderstanding there of what he was trying to achieve in the moment. He had four metres of width to play with so to miss by such a margin is really, really poor.
Does he need me to tell him that? I missed a penalty against England at Twickenham from practically under the sticks, but I made a solemn pledge to myself that day that it would be a long and cold spring before that would happen again. Basic translation: if anything like that gaffe befalls Jack over the next three years, he has no legs to reclaim that jersey. The best make mistakes, but they don’t repeat them in the foreseeable future. Let’s give that one a 36-month window.
England? What happened in the Calcutta Cup is a positive reminder for Ireland that if they get into their hosts on Saturday, there are big gains. But if England are allowed play they are an interesting team. There are entry points for Ireland physically and football wise. If the game was in Dublin it would be a 50-50, but Allianz Stadium is a big advantage to England. At this moment, they have less questions to answer than Ireland.
I like Alex Mitchell and the Northampton contingent. Their input turns one plus one into three. Smith, Mitchell, Dingwall, Freeman, Pollock and, critically, Sam Vesty the coach. That’s where you can see good coaching improve players.
Ireland have selected for the moment, which is fine. Jamison Gibson Park returns, James Lowe has already claimed back his spot. On the nines, there’s little debate. People talk of Gibson Park’s age but funnily, age isn’t seen as an obstacle in France. He’s good for autumn 2027, presuming he gets his contract sorted out.
James Lowe is comfortable in his own skin. He goes out and plays rugby happy with himself. He’s an untamed winger who wasn’t formed through the Irish schools system where everything has to be pre-ordained. He plays what’s in front of him. I’ll put in a kick chase because I’ll get it back, I back himself. Interesting that the two guys who shone against Italy were the ones who played without a handbrake. Lowe and McCloskey.
