Donal Lenihan: Jack Crowley can kick on with backing of a central contract from IRFU

There are still issues outstanding for Crowley’s contract impasse to be resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. The Munster out-half has made it clear he wants to stay but his presence should not be taken for granted.

Far from castigating two highly talented players, like Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast, we should be supporting them in every way possible. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

I remember the great Tom Kiernan offering his wise council on one of the great out-half debates that has, somehow, remained a constant in Irish rugby going back decades. Ollie Campbell and Tony Ward dominated the airwaves at a time when the media coverage for rugby was nowhere near where it is now.

The fact that Ireland were contending for a Triple Crown and Five Nations championship changed all that. As Ireland prepared to face Scotland, sitting top of the log having defeated Wales at a raucous Lansdowne and England at Twickenham, the special pull-out supplements published by the Irish Independent, Irish Times, the Cork Examiner, as it was at the time, and the now defunct Irish Press on the eve of the game projected rugby to a new audience.