'I wouldn't change a thing' — Jack Crowley on setbacks, reflection and resilience

Munster out-half Jack Crowley says physical edge and reflection on past challenges have shaped his game and mindset. 

REFLECTION: Munster out-half Jack Crowley says physical edge and reflection on past challenges have shaped his game and mindset. Picture: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Jack Crowley has a few fictions that he’d prefer to leave behind him in Chicago, if that’s okay. Just like a nickname, an impression can stick, even when it’s just that — an impression but not a reality.

This Windy City, on the other hand, lives up to its billing, the gale-force gusts that blow in off Lake Michigan and rumble up the east-to-west streets of its gridded downtown shoving pedestrians off the sidewalk every time the shelter of a city block gives way to an open junction. The windchill Wednesday morning, for example, shaved a full 10 degrees off the actual temperature, from 11C to barely above freezing.

It’s a pretty good place, then, to air a few things out there, let them be swept off and out into the prairies for good. For starters there’s this — Jack Crowley wants everyone to know that he can, in fact, relax.

When he returned from his off-season looking fitter, stronger, more explosive and duly backed up that impression with a Croke Park tour de force against Sam Prendergast and Leinster earlier this month, a narrative took hold. This had been his summer of revenge, an action movie montage, no days off, just marathon mornings, afternoons and nights spent in the lab getting dialled.

Well, you can dial M for myth on much of that. There was such a thing as down time. And he was damn glad of it.

“Yeah…no…that's the misconception. I had two weeks off where I did nothing — in Majorca. That’s definitely so important as well,” Crowley insisted this week.

“We finished the summer tour, finished in Lisbon and then for me, the most important thing was just downloading all that information that we took in the year and using those two weeks to reflect. It gave me great time and space to just see where I needed to work on my game. It’s all well and good just jumping in first and doing work and whatnot, but if you're not doing the right stuff and having a good think about what you need to do to get the best out of yourself, then you'll just be working and you'll drive yourself into the ground. It's important to have time to reflect as well.” 

A grand city for reflection too, Chicago. Its iconic Cloud Gate sculpture spends its days as a giant bean-shaped selfie mirror for the masses. Down the opposite end of Grant Park sits Soldier Field. It will attract tens of thousands more on Saturday as Crowley returns to the green No.10 jersey, thanks in large part to what he did after all that reflection.

His pre-season one-on-one work with Gordon Brett and diving more into the mental side of things with Andrew Conway has reaped fast results. His excellent form in red really gave Andy Farrell almost no choice at all when it came time to name his starting XV here on Thursday. In a Chicago re-run with the All Blacks Crowley is a starter again.

“I'm picking Jack now because he deserves it, first and foremost, and then you don't know what can happen as far as form, injuries and opportunities that come around,” Farrell told the Irish media on Thursday. “You're assessing the people who want to compete for that shirt, how they're coping in the background and when or if their opportunities come, how they grab hold of that opportunity.” 

Crowley certainly looks primed to take this opportunity. It was noteworthy that when asked of his observations from a weekend trip to see the NHL’s Blackhawks, he said he enjoyed it but “it might not be the speed or the passion that I like in games”. It was his speed of pass, movement, thinking, all of it, that arguably impressed most in that man-of-the-match display against Leinster. He feels it too.

“Definitely. I think in all walks of life when you're feeling good, when you're looking after yourself, when you're really detailed in your preparation and feeling good, playing good, then it all feeds into the collective as well,” the 25-year-old added.

“You can really feel that energy and for me, having that physical ability, it's a combat sport, rugby is, and being able to be there and be present and stand your ground is huge for me. I think that body of work and that foundation is quite important and it allows you to do kicking and all that extras that you need to do.”

Focusing on his physicality, Crowley repeated an anecdote he’s reached for before from his AIL days when Cork Con teammate Niall Kenneally tried to shuttle him out of the way while defending the line against some imposing Young Munster forwards. He took umbrage then and carries it still: “I just had that chip in my shoulder that he thought I was just going to get run over.” 

More recent developments in Limerick and Cork have played their part too. Crowley speaks in awed tones about the Clayton McMillan revolution being a motivation, reminding him why he got into it all in the first place. It was all timely, even if he insists the pain of being unceremoniously swapped out of the No.10 shirt last November didn’t knock him.

“No, not at all. I think that's part of the reflection. You look at areas about where you want to be better, where you mightn't have been good enough and [that] served me so well to maybe not have it all going your way because it's early doors in my career. It's how you take those learnings on. It's how you can grow your game constantly.

“I wouldn't be where I am right now without going through what I went through and those learnings are massive. It's made me who I am today, so I wouldn't change a thing.

“I would never take that form of mindset and I don't think I was hard done by. I think in terms of performances, I was coming away from games not satisfied with my performance that I was putting in.

“You know when you're out there, opportunities that you might have missed and things might have went well, but maybe not, that killer kind of punch. Reflecting on that has allowed me to understand how I can be more of that killer punch, be more of a threat and be more dangerous out there.”