'He is a good kid, he is hungry to learn, he is hugely ambitious'
Stand-in Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony says it is refreshing to see “hugely ambitious” Jack Crowley’s fearless approach to international rugby.
Crowley was handed his maiden Test start at the 11th hour for Saturday’s nervy 13-10 win over Australia after influential skipper Johnny Sexton suffered a calf injury ahead of kick-off.
The 22-year-old lined up in Dublin with just 20 senior appearances in professional rugby under his belt and having only made his Ireland debut a week earlier by coming off the bench against Fiji.
He calmly slotted a penalty and converted Bundee Aki’s try at the Aviva Stadium, before replacement Ross Byrne secured victory by landing the decisive three points late on.
Flanker O’Mahony, who led the Irish in the absence of Sexton, has been impressed with the attitude of his Munster team-mate and had no doubts about him stepping in.
“Look, we were all conscious that we wanted to make him feel a million dollars and sometimes that’s just a little squeeze on the arm or a pat on the back and he knows then that you’re there,” said O’Mahony.
“The most important thing is your actions from a group, from a forward pack or from a leadership group.
“They probably weren’t always up to scratch but we always had his best interests at heart, definitely (on Saturday).
“It was a big ask for a young man to come in and play 70 minutes against a team as good as that, and then to come out on top.
“It’s easy to see he is a good kid, he is hungry to learn, he is hugely ambitious, he has no fear of asking questions or saying the wrong thing.
“It’s refreshing to see someone that age getting stuck in and enjoying it and putting a performance like that in. It’s great for him.”
Ireland’s narrow success from a gruelling Test match was a 12th in succession on home soil to retain their status as the world’s top team.
As he turns his attention to another Six Nations campaign ahead of the 2023 World Cup, head coach Andy Farrell admits he has little interest in the rankings.
“I actually don’t know how the points system works, I can’t be bothered trying to work it out because it’s a little bit irrelevant in the sense that we just want to keep improving our performances and keep pushing on and testing ourselves,” he said.
“The people that deserve the accolades are the lads that put the work in, they’ve earned the right to be up there, and they’ve earned the right to be shot down as well. The pressure is going to be good for us in that regard.”
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Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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