Whether he wants it or not, the performance of Jack Crowley against France - in Ireland's opening Six Nations game on Friday - will be the most scrutinised of any of the Irish.
It comes with the territory of succeeding Johnny Sexton, but also because he has shown so much promise in his career with Munster so far.
Opposite him will be Matthieu Jalibert, who is still holding down the fort in the absence of Romain Ntamack. While still only 25-years-old, the Bordeaux ten has amassed 30 international caps, compared to Crowley's nine.
Dan Biggar Full Of Praise For Jack Crowley
Speaking on The Rugby Pod, former Wales out-half, Dan Biggar, spoke of how Ireland's continuity in team selection will make Jack Crowley's transition the smoothest out of the new first-choice out-halves coming in for Ireland, England, and Wales:
I think what's probably going to be the easiest transition is Jack Crowley.
We spoke about possibly Wales and England looking at a new cycle of new players where Ireland are just basically, they've stuck with what they've got.
And they've picked Peter O'Mahony - who is 34 playing some brilliant rugby - to captain.
So there's no sort of short term, he's [not] looking to quit any time soon after making him captain, they've got tons and tons of experience and they all know each other and they all know how they play.
READ HERE: Jack Crowley Reveals Why He Had To Turn Down Ronan O’Gara's La Rochelle Offer
13 January 2024; Jack Crowley of Munster, left, and Dan Biggar of Toulon meet before the Investec Champions Cup Pool 3 Round 3 match between RC Toulon and Munster at Stade Felix Mayol in Toulon, France. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
Biggar played opposite Crowley for Toulon a few weeks back, when Munster put them to the sword in the Champions Cup.
He was full of praise for Crowley and his performance and described the major influence that the young out-half will have on the 2024 Six Nations.
"So I think Jack Crowley ...... we played against him a few weeks ago for Munster and he was absolutely brilliant on the day, varied his game up really well, lots of clever attacking kicks, lots of basics done really well.
"And you look at Johnny Sexton over the last 10 years, he's been brilliant because he's done the basics, so, so well over, over the last 10 years and very, very rarely makes errors.
"So again, I think the winner comes from those two teams [France and Ireland] and I think probably those two players [Crowley and Jalibert] are going to have the biggest say from a 10 point of view.
"Probably from someone like a Finn [Russell] point of view, everyone knows what Finn can do and you kind of expect that.
"But probably Jalibert and Crowley are probably those two which are a little bit unproven at test level.
"And it's really exciting to see what they can do."
SEE ALSO: ROG Has No Fear For Ireland's 10s In The Post-Sexton Era
