Jack Crowley will start at 10 this weekend in the final six nations game of the current campaign. He will start his first game of the Championship this year. He has been on the bench for the rest of the Championship.
His start comes in the week that has seen him linked with a move away from Ireland with Leicester Tigers apparently linked to make a big money move to replace the departing Handre Pollard who moves back to the URC and the Bulls next season.
Let’s hope that all the talk of moves and money will take a back seat in Italy on Saturday and Crowley can allow his rugby to do the talking in a game that is crucial to see Ireland finish the campaign on a winning note.
All week, we have seen talk of Jack Crowley and not one major mention of the impending game in Rome that will also see the International careers of both Conor Murray and Peter O Mahony come to a close. Cian Healy has been left out with Leinster team mate Jack Boyle taking his spot on the bench in the hope of winning a 2nd cap.
The focus will shift towards a tie in Rome that will see Ireland in need of putting up a big score to put the pressure on both England and France later in the day. The Super Saturday element is there but only just and the smart money will still be on France to the needful on home soil on Saturday night vs Scotland.
Ireland have selected a well drilled side with only minimal change with Boyle coming in for Healy and Crowley stepping in at 10 for Prendergast. and Ringrose replace Bundee Aki in the centre. We get another chance to see the future of the Ireland loose head side with Jack Boyle getting another shot to come in for Andrew Porter at some stage of the game.
Finlay Bealham and Thomas Clarkson have shown the way forward on the tight head side in recent weeks with men like Oli Jager in the background keeping the pressure on along with Jack Auniger.
Tadgh Furlong gets a chance to see where he is at the moment given he has spent a large part of the season on the treatment table. Italy will test him out when he comes on.
Ireland will want to finish the Championship with a strong positive performance and will also want to show that they have learned from mistakes this campaign and will need to be very disciplined in defence and solid in attack as well as showing some adventure with an attacking game plan that has shown only glimpses of steps forward under Andrew Goodman.
Amazing that one loss had deflated the optimism that was there after the victory over England in week 1 even with the concession of the two late tries on that evening. The future will look after itself so for now it’s all eyes on Rome and putting the best foot forward….