As the saying goes, what doesn’t break you makes you stronger. Few careers are linear, least of all those of Irish outhalves. David Humphreys, Ronan O’Gara, Johnny Sexton and others have had their ups and downs. Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast are no different.
At this point last season, Crowley was starting his eighth successive Test as the Ireland outhalf in the post-Johnny Sexton era against the All Blacks. He’d played every minute of the 2024 Six Nations title success and started both Tests in South Africa. He would also be the outhalf against Argentina a week later, whereupon Sam Prendergast suddenly had a run of six successive starts at 10 before Crowley was restored for the Six Nations finale in Rome.
After the pair alternated in the two summer Tests, Crowley will start against the All Blacks again, but he maintains last season’s experience did not knock him.
“No, not at all,” he said this week. “I think it served me so well to maybe not have it all going your way because it’s early doors in my career.”
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More, he said, it was an opportunity to grow his game, adding: “I wouldn’t be here where I am right now without going through what I went through. Those learnings are massive and it’s made me who I am today. So I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Nor did he feel he was harshly treated.
“I would never take that form of mindset and I don’t think I was hard done by,” he said, admitting: “I was coming away from games not satisfied with my performance.”
Opportunities were missed, he added, and at times his game lacked a killer punch. “Reflecting on that has allowed me to understand how I can be more of a threat and more dangerous out there.”
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Crowley has returned this season looking a little fitter, stronger and more confident, although not, as the myth has it, at the expense of a holiday.
“No, that’s the misconception,” he said with a laugh, lest we think him a tad obsessive. “I had two weeks off where I did nothing in Majorca. That’s definitely so important as well.”
Having returned slightly later due to Ireland’s summer Tests in Georgia and Portugal, Crowley was suitably impressed by the changed Munster pre-season under Clayton McMillan, likening the friendly against Gloucester to a United Rugby Championship round-five game.
“I was blown away by the intensity they were putting in consistently – like back-to-back days, how much they were pushing each other.”
Thanks to the work he did in the off-season and pre-season, Crowley freely admits he is feeling better physically and playing with more confidence – the two being inextricably linked, of course – and says this also feeds into the Munster collective this season.
“You can really feel that energy,” he said. “It’s a combat sport, rugby, 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. It allows you to do kicking and all the extras you need to do.”
Word is that Crowley didn’t have a strong relationship with former Munster head coach Graham Rowntree. Tellingly, he attributes the greater clarity in Munster’s planning as another factor in his strong start to this campaign.
“Being honest, it was when I came back into pre-season and having that clarity from the coaching group, the way that the team was looking at plans in the week.
“That preparation is something maybe we haven’t had in the past in Munster, for a while anyway. When you see the way the lads are connecting and preparing in the week, it allows you to come in as a 10 and drive that ship and know the lads are on the same page and seeing the same things as you.”
Not, he stressed, that Munster have been perfect.
“Cardiff, we got through by the skin of our teeth. It was good but there’s still more. We won’t be getting carried away with the five from five.”
A striking stat in Munster’s win over Leinster at Croke Park was Crowley’s tally of 18 tackles. He’s always seemed to relish defending, but apparently it wasn’t always thus. He recalls one of his earliest All-Ireland League (AIL) games for Cork Constitution in 2019-20 – his first season out of Bandon Grammar School – at home to Young Munster as something of a line in the sand.
“I remember I was defending at a scrum and the 12 wanted to shift me out because we were close to the goal line and I just didn’t like that. I didn’t like feeling that he was pushing me out, so I told him to go away. I wanted to prove a point that I could stand my ground.
“I didn’t want them thinking about looking after me and ever since then, it’s just been a point that stood in my mind. I definitely haven’t always been good there.
“I just had that chip on my shoulder that he thought I was just going to get run over and then I thought, ‘I’m going to prove to you that I can hold my ground’.”
Crowley received the Division 1A Rising Star award the following May. He says the AIL was both “bloody tough” and an invaluable breeding ground.
“It was raining, mucky. It was in Con. I played twice against the Cookies (Young Munster) and they tried to do it to me twice, moving me out.”
And the upshot? Crowley smiles.
“They didn’t score!”
