Munster stand by decision to rest Jack Crowley against Leinster

Ian Costello believes that Jack Crowley’s presence in Belfast backed up their choices.

Mon, 30 Dec, 2024 - 07:22

Brendan O'Brien

Munster interim head coach Ian Costello says their bonus-point win against Ulster in Belfast two weekends ago vindicates the decision to rest Jack Crowley for the home defeat to Leinster.

All of the provinces work under IRFU guidelines regarding player welfare and the volume of minutes their Ireland representatives can record during different segments of the season, but the decision to sit Crowley out four days ago was always going to raise eyebrows.

Fans had been hoping for a head-to-head between the Munster out-half and Sam Prendergast, his opposite number on the Leinster side who finished the November internationals having assumed ownership of the Test side’s No.10 shirt.

Appealing as that prospect was, it was Crowley’s importance to Munster’s game and their bid for what would have been a huge win against their fiercest rivals that was of most import. In the event, Leinster won pulling up at Thomond Park.

Such was Leinster’s superiority that even Crowley’s presence on the field of play would hardly have swung a 28-7 scoreline back sufficiently in the host’s balance.

“To be fair, the IRFU have recommended a number of games over a period,” said Costello. “It's at our discretion when we rest players. We've different plans around different players giving us the best opportunity to get as many points as we possibly can. It's always a massive decision for a player not to play in a game like this.

“If it wasn't this one, it would have been Saracens or Northampton [in January] and we'd be having the same conversation. So, it's probably one of those things where we feel we have to do the best thing for the team and for the squad at a particular point and Jack, as always, was outstanding about it.”

Costello explained that these decisions are never “black and white” and a cursory look at the minutes played by both Crowley and Prendergast so far this season makes clear that the former has banked far more as we turn into the New Year.

Crowley has played 560 minutes across seven starts for Munster and another 274 minutes between four starts and one cameo for Ireland. That’s 834 minutes in 12 games to date for the 24-year-old.

Prendergast has 330 minutes in five games for Leinster, and another 152 in two starts and a run off the bench for his country. Added to that are the 202 minutes split between three starts for Emerging Ireland on their tour to South Africa for a total of 684 minutes and ten games.

Prendergast was also one of those Leinster players rested for the December 21st URC game against Connacht at the Aviva Stadium and then returned to action for the later trip to Limerick but then strength in depth is much greater in Dublin.

As it is, Costello believes that Crowley’s presence in Belfast backed up their choices.

“One hundred percent. We've had to make some decisions. It's not a secret that we are stretched at the moment in terms of depth but we've a hell of a lot of quality, we just have to manage that the best way we can.

“I've no doubt if Jack wasn't there [in Belfast] last week, we'd have struggled to get four tries, five points.”

Munster had close to 20 players unavailable for the meeting with Leinster so having next weekend off is a boon in that light with the club hopeful that Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony will be fit for the Champions Cup tie against Saracens on January 11th.

Jack O’Donoghue and Diarmuid Barron are looking good for that home tie too, but Costello is very much of a mind to big up the players they already have available with Billy Burns and Tony Butler praised for their efforts at No.10 against Leinster.

The interim boss also made a point of highlighting Brian Gleeson’s start away to Castres earlier this month, a performance that came in the midst of a debate about another key player - Gavin Coombes in that instance – who was fit but unused.

Injury loads have been punishingly high too long and too often at Munster with Costello explaining that, while the club has done a “deep dive” into their training loads, they have been hit again recently with seven traumatic/acute injuries that are just part of rugby.

“The key now is I want to keep [the discussion] away from injuries because we've still got quality. We had the likes of Evan O'Connell, Ruadhan Quinn and Sean Edogbo playing an ‘A’ game [on Saturday] so there's still a very competitive squad there.

“I want to focus on what we have rather than what we don't have.”