Denis Leamy: Jack Crowley can succeed Johnny Sexton for Ireland

Munster’s Jack Crowley with the Investec Player of the Match Award. Pic Credit: Laszlo Geczo, Inpho.

Denis Leamy believes Jack Crowley has shown he has the big-game temperament to succeed Johnny Sexton as starting fly-half for Ireland in next month’s Guinness Six Nations.

Crowley gave Andy Farrell a timely reminder of his credentials in Toulon last Saturday with a man of the match performance in Munster’s 28-19 Champions Cup pool victory at Stade Felix Mayol with the Ireland head coach set to unveil his squad at 2pm today for the championship opener against France in Marseille in 16 days.

Ireland will convene for a warm-weather training camp in Portugal late next week with fingers crossed those players named this afternoon successfully negotiate this weekend’s final round of Champions Cup pool games.

Crowley, who celebrated his 24th birthday by the Mediterranean with his tactical kicking creating three of Munster’s four tries in the bonus-point victory over the three-time champions, will be in friendlier territory than the volatile Stade Mayol this Saturday evening when the URC champions welcome unbeaten Pool 3 leaders and English Premiership table toppers Northampton Saints to Thomond Park.

Yet Munster defence coach Leamy believes the fly-half who backed up veteran Sexton during Ireland’s run to the World Cup quarter-finals last autumn has further burnished his credentials with his game management in the red of his home province, not least last weekend.

"Ultimately, that is the test, isn't it?” Leamy said. “These places are difficult places to go and play. If it's not for now or in the next six months for Jack, he will continue to develop and it will be somewhere down the line. I'd have confidence in that.

“Jack's been around the Irish squad a good while now. There seems to be, there is a lot of competition around that. Andy (Farrell) and his coaches have a decision around that. Certainly, if Jack was called upon, he is certainly a player that has a big-game temperament."

Crowley and regular half-back partner Craig Casey both produced fine performances against Toulon to cement their places in the Six Nations squad and as a combination earned the praise of Leamy.

“Yeah, the boys have done really well, you’d have to say. Now that they’re gaining experience rapidly.

“Just the maturity from when I’ve come back into the club and from what I’ve seen over the last 18 months has been really impressive. Both guys have really matured well and it is a learning curve.

“They will learn for years and years to come. But you can see the bits and pieces that they have added to the game and that they will keep continuing to add to their game. Because they’re smart guys, they get the game, they have a hunger and two guys who are really good prospects.”

Munster’s performance in Toulon may have advance many claims for inclusion in Farrell’s selection today and though Leamy was reticent to predict the Ireland boss’s final decisions, he said he hoped the national squad would reflect current good form.

“Look, just really from a player/coach relationship, you’d love to see some of those guys be called in, I really would. But these decisions are obviously made by Andy and his coaching staff and you trust everything that they see and that they want.

“But look, it would be lovely to see guys certainly in the mix, somebody like John Hodnett has been really, really good for us and it would be lovely to see that rewarded. But look, sport doesn’t always work like that either.”

The former Munster and Ireland back-rower described Farrell’s post-World Cup season as a transition year with new faces and a new captain to fill the void created by Sexton’s retirement following his 118th appearance for his country in the World Cup quarter-final loss to New Zealand.

The Ireland boss is also expected to reveal his choice to succeed the retired fly-half as captain with Peter O’Mahony, James Ryan, Garry Ringrose and Caelan Doris among the perceived candidates for the job.

Yet while Leamy said he was not comfortable commenting on potential skippers, he added: “There was always going to be a changing of the guard, and there'll be a number of different things that will be looked at, in terms of how they can get better. It's a natural transition year.

“I think we were very lucky, my generation, that you probably had guys who were, either through experience or the way the were, were very natural. It seemed like an easy choice for Brian (O’Driscoll) to be made captain of Ireland, the same with Paul (O’Connell) at Munster and Ireland. At the moment, I don't know.

“I'm kind of conscious of not putting or sticking it to one guy because there are a number of guys. You'd imagine someone like Andy would be all over it, he'll know exactly what's right to do.”