Jack Crowley will have been left disappointed by Andy Farrell's decision to leave him out of the Ireland team for this weekend's visit of Australia to the Aviva Stadium.
Munster fly-half Crowley had impressed during this year's Six Nations as he sought to cement his place as the long-term replacement for Johnny Sexton.
Leinster's Sam Prendergast, however, stands as one of the most highly-rated prospects in Irish rugby. Prendergast was given his first chance from the start against Fiji last weekend and, despite a risky start, grew into the game and impressed Farrell enough to keep his place for the clash with the Wallabies on Saturday.
After years of Sexton monopoly at 10, it is undoubtedly exciting for Irish fans to have multiple hotshots vying for the fly-half jersey. Alongside Crowley and Prendergast, Ciarán Frawley is lurking just behind, while the Byrne brothers remain at Leinster.
It may seem a brave but fair call on the face of it to start Prendergast against Australia. However, ex-Ireland star Shane Horgan explained pre-match why he was unhappy with the handling of the decision.
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Shane Horgan questions handling of Jack Crowley-Sam Prendergast conundrum
Despite the decision to keep Jack Crowley on the bench for the last of Ireland's Autumn Internationals this weekend, the Munsterman was put in front of the media this week.
If this was a World Cup quarter-final, who would Andy Farrell start at 10?
🗣 "Crowley."
🗣 "Crowley."
🗣 "Crowley."
But should the Munster man be worried for his Ireland future? #IREvAUS | #AutumnNationsSeries pic.twitter.com/YAD3pOKhBs— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 30, 2024
It is a role that is usually reserved for those in the starting XV, and Shane Horgan was unimpressed with the call to put Crowley in the spotlight this week of all weeks.
Speaking on Virgin Media ahead of kick-off, Horgan called the decision "cruel and unusual," saying it was not the kind of call he would expect from the "brilliant" Andy Farrell.
I would say Crowley will be disappointed and will be concerned. That's part of it. He's shown great resilience so far in his career, so I think he has that in spades. There's elements that he has to work on and he'll need to work on.
The only thing I would say is...Andy Farrell seems like a brilliant manager. [But] I don't think it was a good decision to put Crowley for media when not selecting him this week. It seems like cruel and unusual punishment, you know, but we don't know the background to that.
And then this is a three horse race as well. [Ciarán] Frawley in the summer won Ireland that Test match and he had a really poor 10 minutes, 15 minutes against New Zealand and now he's not even on the bench.
We have spent years crying out for a contest for the fly-half jersey, and that is what we have got.
Though it may be fair to drop Jack Crowley from the starting lineup, it's hard to argue that a mistake was not made in selecting him for media duties on a week when he has suffered such a frustrating blow in his battle to hold on to the number 10 shirt.
One gets the sense that this battle is far from over.
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