Practice makes perfect as Jack Crowley seizes his moment

STEPPING UP: Munster’s Jack Crowley celebrates after the game. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

If the finger-wagging celebration had more than an echo of Ronan O’Gara in his match-deciding pomp, Jack Crowley’s execution of the game-winning drop goal for Munster against Leinster on Saturday also compared favourably to the legendary fly-half.

O’Gara will be hoping for similar heroics at Aviva Stadium this Saturday when he brings his La Rochelle side, the defending champions, to Dublin to face Leinster in the Heineken Champions Cup final but there was a touch of the old master in the way Crowley, 23, secured his native province’s 16-15 BKT URC semi-final victory over the same opposition.

It was a pivotal moment for his side from a player brimming with confidence and credit to a Munster team that had advanced upfield from under their own posts with some exhilarating play to put Crowley in position to deliver it.

Gavin Coombes had secured the turnover at the other end, ripping the ball from Joe McCarthy with the clock on 75:30 and Munster trailing 15-13. They had been besieged in their own half for five minutes until the No.8 gave them hope of a lifeline and they grabbed it with both hands, coming out on top of a short session of kick tennis with another turnover when Leinster replacement prop Thomas Clarkson spilled the ball in contact following a thunderous tackle from Alex Kendellen. 

From there the ball went through the hands of Keith Earls, Shane Daly, and John Hodnett, whose offload in front of his posts found Rory Scannell, the man who had replaced the wounded Ben Healy in the 32nd minute, an injury that had pushed Crowley from inside centre to fly-half.

Scannell was immediately swarmed by blue jerseys but jinked his way out of trouble, and then offloaded back to Hodnett as Munster played sevens-style rugby inside their 22.

Another return of kicks fell to Crowley with the clock at 76:25 and he took the initiative, carrying over halfway and into a crunching collision with Harry Byrne as Munster moved the ball at pace once more, the auxiliary fly-half regathering the ball after another series of slick passes from Antoine Frisch, Earls, Daly and Coombes.

When Hodnett carried into the Leinster 22 as the 77th minute approached, Crowley began to move into position and five phases later, he was in the perfect position, two metres outside the 22, to receive Craig Casey’s pass form the back of a ruck and kick the go-ahead points with two minutes remaining.

“That's an unbelievable skill, what he's just done under pressure,” Graham Rowntree said of Crowley’s drop goal. “He practices that most days. The diligence of the kick, he's practiced that every day after training.” 

The head coach was also admiring of the drive that set up the game-clinching kick.

"We have to be brave. I want us to be brave when you are chasing the game like that and that's how we train. I back the guys to make the right decisions. That was the right decision.

“It took some patience there. Good game control by the half-backs on the field. It can get careless when you’re trying to run the clock down like that. You get a lot of referees who penalise you for sealing off.

“But our detail was really good there and Jack pulled the trigger just at the right time under immense pressure. That’s some skill that is. I’d hate to have to do that for a living but he practises that most days, so I was delighted with the outcome.”