AFTER THE GLORY of his game-winning drop goal in the URC semi-final against Leinster last season, Jack Crowley tasted the frustration of a miss in last weekend’s Champions Cup draw with Bayonne.
With 79:06 on the clock, a lineout steal by Tom Ahern gave Munster one last possession in the Bayonne half.
They battered away at the excellent Bayonne defence for 19 phases to no avail. No breaks, no penalties. With the score still locked at 17-17 and the clock now at 81:15, Crowley was back in the pocket and called for the pass from Craig Casey.
To the left of the posts and around 37 metres out, Crowley took his shot. It went wide to the right. It was only when he hit the drop goal effort that most people realised Crowley was missing the boot on his standing left foot.
The boot had come off over a minute before his kick and while he thinks he “potentially” could have tried to get the boot back on at some point, Crowley still believes he should have slotted the kick anyway.
“I looked at it from a technical point of view,” said Crowley this week. “I was happy with the ball drop. I struck it quite early in terms of we talk about staying on the 45 [-degree angle] and swinging through with your leg to the target.
“If you look at, it I kick it dead square and I kick it exactly where I come through to and where my leg finishes. So from that point of view… I suppose in the heat of the moment we were playing phases to try and score [a try] first that way and it came down to we were in front of the posts, we’d got good momentum with the carry.
“You look in terms of pressure, I don’t think they got much through, so I still think, as much as I potentially could have gotten… I don’t even know if my boot was there or where it was… yeah. I still think I should have got it is the ultimate outcome of it.”
Drop goals are rare, particularly when they’re potential game-winners with the clock in the red. That’s why we all remember them so clearly. That’s why Crowley’s successful effort against Leinster was lauded so heavily.
Some out-halves don’t take them on but Crowley felt he had to hit last weekend’s effort.
“I just felt that at the time,” he said. “Definitely looking back with hindsight you could take one or two more phases and stay playing another bit.
“I suppose I just backed myself to get it. It’s not a far kick, it’s in front of the posts, the wind wasn’t quite an element. All these things come into it and if that goes over, everything is a completely different conversation.
“That’s why I just think it was down to the technique. We could have stayed playing, no doubt, and gone for a try but in that moment I made the decision and it’s one that obviously didn’t pay off.
“But I think I’ll learn a lot from it going forward in terms of maybe how we could work it better but I would have liked it if it went between the posts, it would have been a different story.”
This analysis highlights how self-aware and thoughtful 23-year-old Crowley is about his game and Munster’s game.
Ask him how Munster’s attack is going and he will dive into a detailed outline of things that can improve. Raise the topic of him having played in multiple positions last season and he explains in depth how it helps to know what others in the team are seeing.
Crowley laughs when he’s reminded that Munster scrum-half Craig Casey recently revealed that the pair of them are completely obsessed with rugby. Crowley insists he can switch off in the evenings when he leaves Munster’s training centre, but he does say that winning the URC last season means he’s hungrier than ever.
“You saw last year what it meant to – he’s retired now – but Earlsy and Bomber, Andrew Conway, and even Pete with his captaincy,” said Crowley.
“To be able to do special things like that, it just creates a hunger. Imagine if you could do something like that again this season for someone like that. It becomes obsessive.
“You got a taste last year of what that little bit of magic can do. Winning that in South Africa, the impact that had on people who came up to you over the summer to say how class it was.
“You’d almost forgot about it because it had been a month or two. But you see the impact of what you do as a player can have on people and bring a bit of happiness to them.”
There’s extra motivation for Crowley right now in the fact that Ireland’s number 10 jersey is up for grabs. The Johnny Sexton era is over and Andy Farrell will name a new starting out-half in just under seven weeks’ time for the Six Nations opener against France.
Crowley is widely seen as the front-runner but he is at pains to insist that the Six Nations isn’t on his mind yet. He says he can’t afford to be thinking that far ahead.
“Of course everybody wants to be there,” said Crowley. “I’m sure there are people all around the country who want to be in an Irish team, but the brutal reality is you have to perform.
“And you have got to be performing consistently. That’s what I am chasing and if I’m performing in here [with Munster], the main priority is that the lads around me are getting the best of that and they can look good off the back of it.
“If I can do that, well then the rest will follow.”
Sexton has been good to Crowley with advice in recent years and the Munster man said he will happily continue to lean on the Ireland and Leinster legend if he can.
There haven’t been any chats since the World Cup.
“He’s in Dubai, is he? I haven’t been able to get him!” joked Crowley.
On Sunday, he will lead Munster back battle against Exeter. The southern province have a point to prove after last weekend’s disappointing draw against Bayonne.
“It felt like a loss,” said Crowley. “We certainly treated it as that.
“The biggest thing here is we’re unbelievably honest in terms of when we review things and we just looked at it as one that got away, in terms of opportunities that we had and ones we didn’t take.”
Crowley will look to take every chance that comes his way in this game and beyond.
