Jack Crowley adds another clutch moment to growing repertoire
Jack Crowley may have the thought his match-deciding penalty against South Africa was “a fairly easy one” but with the stakes as high as they come in a pivotal World Cup pool match, the pressure was immense.
So credit the replacement fly-half for having the smarts and the nerve to let the shot clock run down into single figures and eat up valuable time as Ireland looked to see out a Pool B blockbuster they were leading 10-8 heading past the 77-minute mark.
Crowley has nailed some pretty big moments in his fledgling career, dispatching Leinster with a late drop goal in last season’s URC semi-finals and helping Munster to a Grand Final victory over the Stormers in Cape Town a fortnight later but this was at a different level. Thrown into the fray less than five minutes earlier as captain Johnny Sexton was withdrawn, the 23-year-old stepped into just his eighth Test match with this top-drawer contest against the defending world champions on a knife edge.
And it was not too long before he was handed the chance to make life a little easier for the Six Nations champions, from a scrum penalty on the five-metre line as his fellow bench warmers came up big against the Springbok’s “Bomb Squad”.
To then execute in front of almost 80,000 people at a raucous Stade de France, sending his kick off the tee between the posts, was the stuff of dreams.
“Ah yeah, pretty special,” Crowley said. “I think when you are sitting on the bench here looking up at the clock and looking at the time, slowly as the time is dwindling away you see the magnitude grow larger… and we all know the credit South Africa deserve for making that challenge.
“It was a proper Test match. The physicality was through the walls and just when you are coming on you’ve got to know the magnitude of the game and the responsibility.
“But I think I got a fairly easy one from in front of the posts so if I’d missed that I think you’d be saying a different story to me… you take them.
“Look, you are delighted to get a result in the end for the lads who put in a shift throughout the whole game.”
That the Springboks very nearly snatched victory from Ireland’s grasp at the death, only for a 50-50 call at a collapsed maul to go against the 2019 World Cup winners, underlined just how crucial Crowley’s measured build-up to the 77th minute penalty had been and the fly-half credited the assistance of James Lowe, the team-mate who stood at his side and talked the Corkman through the shot-clock countdown.
“I know it sometime looks – I don’t know what the word is… it’s precious time,” Crowley said. “He was counting down for me because at that stage of the game you’ve got to be trying to close out the game.
“You can’t be giving them an opportunity because they will take it. You saw that when they kicked to the corner for the maul that they had, so the shot clock up in the corner you are watching it and it got to 10 and (he was) counting down and, yeah, precious time.”
Ireland have earned some leisure time now, with a three-day break away from camp to be spent with friends and family in France before reconvening back in Tours on Wednesday to begin preparations for their final match in Pool B, against Scotland at Stade de France a week on Saturday. Crowley promised no let-up in the pressure being applied internally at their Stade de la Chambrerie training complex.
“We are not guaranteed a quarter yet so yeah, I know you hear it a lot from players but this week obviously we have a few days off to recover, to rest because it has been a few intense weeks.
“Then we go back in on Wednesday and the preparation begins for Scotland but … I suppose they are going to grow throughout the competition aren’t they? We have come up against them in the Six Nations and they have been one the toughest competitors you come up against because of the way they play as well, so the game plan again is going to be different compared to (South Africa).
“So our eyes are firmly on them. Recovering this week, preparation is massive Wednesday to Sunday and then back into the game week. I’m sure they will be gunning for us.”
Crowley plans to use his time off to “take it easy” and although he perked up at the suggestion of a visit to Disneyland Paris it appeared to be merely to take the opportunity to continue the squad’s good natured slagging of diminutive scrum-half Craig Casey.
“Disneyland Paris! We have to get a pass for Craig though,” he said, unable to stop chuckling, “there’s a few old-age pensioners as well. Yeah, maybe Disneyland, we’ll see.”
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