Ronan O’Gara’s verdict on Johnny Sexton’s ’emotionally advanced’ successor for Ireland

La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara believes Jack Crowley is the right man to pull the strings as Ireland’s first choice fly-half when they face France in Friday’s Six Nations opener in Marseille.

When former Ireland skipper and 2018’s World Rugby Player of the Year Johnny Sexton retired after last year’s Rugby World Cup in France, the big question amongst Irish fans was who would replace the legendary playmaker.

Munsterman Crowley and the Leinster quartet of Ross Byrne, Harry Byrne, Ciarán Frawley and Sam Prendergast are all names that have been mentioned as possible successors.

Backing Crowley to succeed

However, O’Gara, who preceded Sexton as Ireland‘s chief playmaker, is confident Crowley is the right man for the job after catching the eye with some excellent performances for Munster over the past 12 months.

“There’s nothing set in concrete, far from it,” O’Gara told The Irish Times. “Jack gets first crack at it. If he does well, he’ll keep the jersey. It’s wrong to say he’s under pressure if you’re setting him up to succeed. For this Six Nations, it will be Jack, and the alternatives are Harry Byrne or Ciarán Frawley.

“Jack has more credit than those two because Ciarán doesn’t own a 10 jersey. The two Byrne brothers have. And then the guy putting on heat from a distance, maybe not for this campaign, is Sam Prendergast.”

Several other players have deputised for Sexton in Ireland’s number 10 jersey in recent years with the likes of Billy Burns, Ian Madigan, Paddy Jackson, Jack Carty and Joey Carbery all getting a chance to call the shots, but none of them really put their hand up with commanding performances.

“It just comes down to being managed well and that comes down to a good coach. For me, you have either scenario [one standout player or rivalry between several] and then you manage it,” said O’Gara.

“So, Johnny was way ahead of any other rival and that requires one set of management skills. And then you have the current situation where you’re setting up two guys to succeed but you’re not too sure if they both will.

“And if it is, what’s the pecking order going to be down the line, or do you need to change? Does number three become number one, and number four become number two? So, you address it and make sure it doesn’t become an elephant in the room. You explain to each one of them. This is how I see you. This is what I think you can bring to the team.”

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell named Crowley as Sexton’s back-up for three of their four 2023 Rugby World Cup pool matches – against South Africa, Scotland and Romania.

The 24-year-old came on to the field to close out all those games and he was also on Ireland’s bench in their quarter-final loss to New Zealand, although he was the only replacement not used by Farrell in that encounter.

‘Emotionally advanced’

“What’s different is that he [Crowley] is probably a lot more emotionally advanced than when we played,” said O’Gara. “But there’s no doubt that’s one position you get better the more minutes you play and he hasn’t sufficient minutes played yet.

“It’ll always be a question that we can’t answer but could he have made an impact in the quarter-final? He could well have but these are the choices that coaches make.

“And [that’s] not to say that I would have done any different to Andy Farrell. These are fine margins we are talking about but Jack is an inexperienced Test player, an experienced club player, and from knowing him and speaking to him, I don’t think he will be fazed by the challenge of the mental game at Test level.”

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