Jack Crowley backs up Marseille effort with another starring role

STARRING ROLE: Jack Crowley of Ireland runs in to score his side's first try during the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Spoiler alert: the Netflix people have clearly found their men. At least with Ireland anyway.

The cameramen and the boom operators are on site for a second series of the Full Contact documentary and you only had to see them follow Joe McCarthy and James Lowe like two Pied Pipers to understand where this script is going.

It’s hard to fault the thinking behind it. McCarthy was the best player on show across all three games last week, his good nature off the pitch, the mullet and the ‘Big Joe’ label all adding layers to a man whose day job is so pivotal to the team right now.

Lowe has been a source of interest ever since his arrival from New Zealand thanks to a barnstorming attacking game and a wisecracking nature that marks him out in dressing-rooms that tend to conform to a more straitlaced public persona.

That’s movies for you, always looking to simplify and package sprawling events into byte-sized chunks, but this Ireland team continues to throw up a disparate cast of actors whose roles can’t be overlooked.

Think, for example, of Stuart McCloskey slipping back in to the midfield for a rare cap against Italy and the sight of him making yards and firing off offloads. Or James Ryan as he looked to reclaim not just his place in the XV but his former status as keystone in this elite pack.

Then there’s Jack Crowley.

The Munster out-half’s performance against France in Marseille answered a slew of questions as he stepped into Johnny Sexton’s shoes but this follow-up act may, in some strange way, have been even more impressive. Anyone can hit their mark one week, backing it up is another thing again.

Caveat here. Ireland spent the vast majority of both Six Nations games on the front foot but that could be countered by the clips from the first two rounds where the 24-year old got hammered by a defender after delaying a killer pass until the last nanosecond.

That’s brave, obviously. It’s also very difficult to do in the maelstrom of Test rugby. Add in his ability to challenge the defence with his own hard running and an ability to mix things up with the boot and it leaves him and Ireland in business.

“He’s got a lot of pressure on him,” said Lowe who is taking on the aura of a senior player in his public utterances these days. “There have been some world-class tens come before him. He’s taken it in his stride, bossing it around week to week.

“He hasn’t quite got that Sexton aura about him. He hasn’t got the stare-down yet. He’s awesome, he growing into it. He slotted into 15 as well, fair play to him, he’s a young man with a good head on his shoulders and he could go far.” 

A first Test try was the most visible representation of the rewards Crowley accrued against the Italians and head coach Andy Farrell – a man not known for being excitable – was close to gushing in his praise for his ten’s role in its creation.

Farrell labelled it an “unbelievable” try and paid particular attention to the offload from Crowley from off the floor. As ever with Farrell, there was no shirking from any aspects that might not have been so slick.

Crowley moved to full-back when Hugo Keenan went off injured and his coach felt that the enforced switch saw him creep a bit too wide and make the odd error. Then again. Keenan’s ubiquity in recent years hasn’t exactly let many colleagues find their legs at 15.

Crowley’s first two Ireland appearances of 2024 have reinforced the suspicion that this is a man with the ability and the temperament to make the No.10 jersey his own for some time to come. That’s more than enough for now.

“He's obviously still learning, he's a young guy but some of his touches, the way he takes the ball to the line, the way he offloads is something slightly different to what Johnny brought,” said Stuart McCloskey. “Not that Johnny wasn't incredible.

“It's just a slightly different way of playing. Obviously he's had a couple of mistakes in there, and bits and pieces to work on, but you're going to get that with someone who is 24 years old. I thought he was very good today and very good last week as well.”