The Green Bay Packers make picking quarterbacks look easy.
While others in the NFL have been throwing darts at a wall for years and decades trying to find the right man to lead their franchise, there’s a generation of Packers fans that have only known good quarterbacks.
From Superbowl champion and three-time MVP Brett Favre in 1992, Aaron Rodgers seamlessly took over the starting spot in 2008, adding another Superbowl and winning the MVP award four times.
Since moving on from Rodgers in 2023, Jordan Love has inherited the starting QB spot. After some early teething problems, a playoff run and a wildcard round win against the Dallas Cowboys suggest they may have struck gold again.
There are obvious parallels between the quarterback in NFL and the out-half in rugby, a position that requires athleticism and intelligence, skill and swagger, and crucially a big personality.
Much like the Packers, Irish rugby’s quarterback succession has been seamless in the last 30 years. Since the start of the professional game we’ve seen Eric Elwood comfortably pass the torch onto David Humphreys, who in turn paved the way for Ronan O’Gara, with O’Gara followed by Johnny Sexton.
By the time O’Gara and Sexton inherited their jerseys, they were already established and experienced internationals, apprentices who had served their time under the old master.
Jordan Love took over as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers in 2023
For Jordan Love at the Packers, see Jack Crowley with Ireland.
While Love only took over as the starting QB in Green Bay this season, the 25-year-old spent a couple of seasons learning the tricks of the trade as Rodgers’ back-up, just as Rodgers had spent time shadowing Favre.
When Crowley walks out onto the Orange Velodrome pitch this evening, it will mark the first words in a new chapter of Irish rugby. The Munster 10 may have won nine caps for Ireland over the last 15 months, but this will be his first time doing so as Ireland’s first choice.
While the natural talent is clearly there, Crowley doesn’t have the bank of experience that both Sexton and O’Gara had before they took over the starting job full-time, or indeed the years of back-up work that Rodgers and Love had with the Packers. Crowley’s rise to become Ireland’s starting out-half has been a faster process, capitalising on the loss of form of Joey Carbery and injuries to Ross and Harry Byrne to skip to the top of Andy Farrell’s depth chart.
His first cap in November 2022 was off the bench in a forgettable win against Fiji, before he had an unforgettable night a week later against the Wallabies, thrust into the starting side shortly before kick-off after an injury to Sexton during the warm-up. Crowley’s first start ultimately saw him wearing Sexton’s jersey that night at the Aviva Stadium, with the Ireland captain’s name stitched into the bottom of the kit (below). The scriptwriters could have been criticised for a lack of subtlety.
The pressure for the 24-year-old is that while he’s first choice right now, he’s at the front of a packed bunch. When Sexton and O’Gara and Humphreys finally got opportunity to own the jersey, they were the standout candidates to wear it.
While Crowley enters the Six Nations as first choice, he does so with Ciarán Frawley and Harry Byrne breathing down his neck. The older and more experienced option of Ross Byrne will also be available later in this Six Nations, while the Ireland coaching staff have had the opportunity to look at the latest contender Sam Prendergast this week.
And although Ross Byrne is the most experienced of that bunch, with just 22 caps spread out over six seasons, Andy Farrell isn’t worried about heading into the Guinness Six Nations campaign with such an inexperienced stable of out-halves.
“You can’t just say that it’s just down to experience,” the Ireland head coach said this week.
“It’s down to performing when you get the chance, isn’t it? Someone like Jack and Ciarán Frawley, Harry not as much because he’s been injured quite a bit, they’ve had plenty of opportunities to show in camp that they’re capable of taking the jersey.
Crowley and Ireland held their captain’s run at the Orange Velodrome on Thursday
“It’s not about just giving someone 50 caps and saying the position is yours, it’s what right for the team and what’s best for the team, and with that competition we’ll find out who’s up to the task.”
Only time will tell whether Crowley holds the jersey for one year or ten, but if he doesn’t, he won’t die wondering. In his short career to date, the Cork man has consistently embraced risk.
Against Leinster in the BKT United Rugby Championship semi-final, he demanded the ball for his late winning dropgoal, when others may have lost the opportunity by trying to milk the clock. At the World Cup against South Africa he attempted a similar drop at a crucial stage, and while the ball pulled wide, it showed a player that wasn’t afraid to put himself in the firing line.
He’s a very different player to Sexton, but does share the same appetite for contact, putting himself in the firing line by holding onto the ball a half-second longer than others would.
“I think what I like about Jack Crowley is I don’t get the impression he’s going to leave the seat available for someone,” said former Ireland and Munster out-half Ronan O’Gara earlier this week.
The La Rochelle head coach has publicly been a fan of his fellow Corkman for a few years, having tried to sign him from Munster three seasons ago.
“When I see a 10, I understand what’s involved and I can see it pretty much straight away [with Crowley]
“I think he has that element of confidence in him, yet a lot of humility in him. I think what is so important at Test level is he doesn’t let mistakes eat at his mindset.
“So, he’ll continue to back his decisions, he’ll continue to ask questions of the defence, and I think that’ll stand him well.
“In that position, you’re only going to get better for the number of minutes you play. Yeah, he’s lacking minutes but I don’t think he’s lacking mental fortitude, that’s for sure.”
That mental fortitude will be tested in what’s expected to be a load and intimidating atmosphere at the Velodrome, and with that in mind, expectations should be tempered.
The opening game of this Six Nations won’t break his young Test career, but it could be the making of a long one.
