Jack Crowley absence untimely for him and for Ireland’s World Cup ambitions

Ireland's Jack Crowley is tackled by Scotland's Sione Tuipulotu and Finn Russell. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Jack Crowley made waves last summer. 

Not so much for anything he did on Ireland’s underwhelming summer tour to Georgia and Portugal, but the extra homework he put in when he got home.

The Munster out-half cut any holidays short and opted instead to work on his physical conditioning in his own time. The results were obvious as soon as he came off the bench against Scarlets for his first run of the term back in September.

Excellent in his 22 minutes that day, he was superb again the next week against Cardiff and, while the campaign wasn’t one long upward curve, his form earned a return to the Ireland No.10 shirt by the close of the Six Nations.

All of which makes his latest setback the more frustrating.

Crowley picked up what turned out to be a blood vessel injury in his leg back in mid-April and hasn’t played since. On Wednesday it was confirmed that he will miss Ireland’s summer tour to Australia and New Zealand. Cruel, and untimely.

All he can do now is accept his fate and decide on what his best course of action will be over the off-season, rehab aside, while Sam Prendergast, Harry Byrne and Ciaran Frawley try to catch Andy Farrell’s eye Down Under.

Crowley’s mental toughness is unquestioned.

He has already had to contend with having that Ireland starting role taken from him when Farrell first turned to the young and green Prendergast midway through the November series in 2024 after the older man had won a Six Nations and shared a series in South Africa.

It’s impossible to see a scenario where a fit Crowley would not have played the leading role in the playmaking department in the weeks to come as Ireland face Australia, Japan and New Zealand in the opening rounds of the new Nations Championship.

With Farrell naming a strong squad, it would have been a chance to cement even further his status as leading man, even if the tour still represents a big ask for a team with so many players who were only starting a British and Irish Lions odyssey a year ago.

So, what now for Farrell and for Ireland?

Prendergast has endured a season that will test his own mental strength having lost his place with club and country, and with questions over his defence and general robustness following him like a flanker with blood in his nostrils.

The Kildare man has been returned to the Leinster lineup in recent weeks and he’ll start again against the Bulls in Croke Park on Friday. A beautiful attacking ten, he simply has to stand up and prove himself on the other side of the ball.

Byrne has fallen down the pecking order. The Champions Cup semi-final against Toulon and the final defeat to Bordeaux-Begles largely passed him by and he hasn’t been much of a factor in Ireland’s business in recent times.

Frawley’s case is the most curious of all.

Leinster have persisted in using him at centre or as a full-back, so much so that its over a year since he started at out-half, and he hasn’t featured at all since impressing off the bench against Bordeaux in Bilbao.

A switch to Connacht seems to be the perfect move for him if he wants to make more of a play as a ten than a utility player, but that doesn’t do much for Farrell in the here and now as he contemplates a tricky trip across the equator.

Frawley rescued a win and a series draw away to the Springboks two summers ago, dirtied his bib with a calamitous cameo against the All Blacks later that year, but remains a regular member of the wider Test squad.

So, if the timing of Crowley’s injury isn’t great for the man himself then it isn’t any different for a head coach who desperately needs to get his ducks in a row now that we are only 16 months out from the next World Cup.

Ireland have just 12 games listed between now and their tournament opener against Portugal in the Sydney Football Stadium. Prendergast, Byrne and Frawley have less than 40 caps between them. They are all still babes in this wood.

Crowley has more or less as many on his own but he is still a long way from the finished product as a Test out-half. Time is running out if Ireland are to square away what is the most important selection decision of this entire cycle.