{"id":128178,"date":"2025-10-17T14:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/128178\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T14:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:28:12","slug":"media-stoked-outhalf-rivalry-is-about-to-get-real-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/128178\/","title":{"rendered":"media-stoked outhalf rivalry is about to get real \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little cruelly perhaps, they\u2019ve been pitted against each other like two pugilists for our delectation. Yet, a little oddly, Sam Prendergast<\/a> and Jack Crowley<\/a> will finally face off for the first time ever in this Saturday\u2019s Leinster<\/a> v Munster<\/a> set-to at Croke Park (kick-off 5.15pm).<\/p>\n

After all, their claims for the Irish number 10 jersey have generated more debate than any other individual rivalry for the last year, yet squad rotation and game management meant each in turn missed the home legs of last season\u2019s derbies. A marquee fixture missing one of the two main protagonists for the Irish 10 jersey seemed daft.<\/p>\n

Not any more. In recent weeks, the opposing young 10s in the famed blue and red jerseys have had top billing. Nor can the mainstream media be blamed for stoking the rivalry. Well, not entirely anyway.<\/p>\n

In addition to social media, the marketing departments of both Leinster and the URC have made prominent use of both young men, as well as images of Johnny Sexton infamously roaring at a prostrate Ronan O\u2019Gara in that 2009 Champions Cup semi-final at, appropriately, Croke Park. <\/p>\n

Heated outhalf rivalries are hardly new. Rewind to the first of a two-Test series in 1979 Australia when Tony Ward had just been named European Player of the Year. Not even Ollie Campbell, who landed in Australia with just one cap, expected to be named at 10.<\/p>\n

But so it came to pass, creating such a furore that the Irish Press front page headline read \u201cWard out, Campbell in\u201d, and it was given higher priority than a piece about the pope coming to visit Ireland. Noel Murphy\u2019s decision was vindicated as Campbell kicked 15 points in the first Test and steered Ireland to a 2-0 series win. So began the great Campbell-Ward debate.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland’sIreland\u2019s Ollie Campbell in the Five Nations Championship game against Scotland at Murrayfield in January 1983. Photograph\/Billy Stickland\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re fairly young and new to the game, you might not get that when people like me saying the number 10 was the general,\u201d says Stuart Barnes, the former England outhalf turned erudite pundit and now a writer for the Times and Sunday Times in the UK. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was Napoleon, and it was about who was the better player; how that person shaped a team. You talk about Ward and Campbell. I was a teenager in England, and I was a Tony Ward man but, a bit later, I thought maybe Ollie Campbell had a more all-round game. But no other position has that.<\/p>\n

\u201cA winger can run a hundred metres in 10.4, and can be 19 stone with quick feet, but they rely so much on others. Now there\u2019s an argument that the 10s rely on the eight forwards and the number 9, but it is the epicentre of decision-making and rugby union is different to rugby league because there is more key decision-making made.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Leinster v Munster: Steady uptake in ticket sales sees more than 50,000 sold for Croke Park clashOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Also, they are usually the goalkickers, match-winners and chief strategists of their teams. Think O\u2019Gara\u2019s drop goal in 2009 in Cardiff, or Sexton\u2019s in Paris in 2018, and World Cup-winning drop goals in extra time and Joel Stransky and Jonny Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoments,\u201d agrees Barnes. \u201cThey\u2019re the blokes who nail the moments and you remember them. In England, the defining moment still is 2003 and Johnny Wilkinson\u2019s drop goal off his wrong foot and Ian Robertson on the BBC Radio screaming with Rob Andrew, the co-commentator, funnily enough. That is what people who like sport, but don\u2019t know much about rugby, think English rugby is. It\u2019s Wilkinson 2003, November the 22nd which, by the way, is my birthday. But I don\u2019t remember it for any sacred reasons of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes actually felt Wilkinson was slightly overrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you thought that Charlie Hodgson was a better player than Jonny Wilkinson, you were going to get a barrel of bullshit from readers because you weren\u2019t allowed to say it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Barnes himself speaks from experience, having mostly lost out on the English 10 jersey to Rob Andrew despite having plenty of support among the media, and his own experience demonstrates that it\u2019s impossible for the protagonists to ignore the outside noise. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Tyler Bleyendaal not expecting a Croke Park beauty contest when Leinster face MunsterOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference, in those distant days, was no social media. And players are human beings and they look at it. I think that more than anything drives any rivalry or animosity if it exists. With the newspapers, I tended to read them if I\u2019ve had a good game, and if I hadn\u2019t, I tended to ignore them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew myself when I was playing well or badly. I thought I was better than Rob Andrew. I\u2019m not saying I was, but I thought I was.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I couldn\u2019t understand why they didn\u2019t pick me. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Rob disliked me, but he thought: \u2018Why is this bloke who\u2019s got hardly any caps getting so many headlines?\u2019 I always thought \u2018Rob can\u2019t do this\u2019 and Rob would think \u2018Barnesy can\u2019t do that\u2019. But it wasn\u2019t personal. It was about what we gave to a team. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you stop playing, that\u2019s a different kettle of fish. When you\u2019re playing you maximise the opposition\u2019s weaknesses and you minimise your own. And everyone does that. Johnny Sexton would read a game of rugby better than he would read the strengths and weaknesses of Ronan O\u2019Gara and vice versa. O\u2019Gara was a great caller of a game, but he might not quite get Sexton as accurately as others because of this animosity \u2013 or rivalry, let\u2019s call it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Gordon D’Arcy celebrates his try while Jonathan Sexton and Munster’s Ronan O’Gara exchange words in May 2009. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Possibly the most intense number 10 rivalry in New Zealand, certainly in the professional era, was between Andrew Mehrtens and Carlos Spencer, which Barnes says was North Island (Spencer) v South Island (Mehrtens).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was also an aesthetic one. Carlos had this incredible bag of tricks. There\u2019s probably never been a flyhalf who could do so many clever things and I remember people used to say to me: \u2018You\u2019d be a Carlos Spencer man.\u2019 And I\u2019d get really angry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d go: \u2018No, I\u2019m a Mehrtens man because flyhalf is about calling the game as well as having the moment.\u2019 And Mehrtens drove the ship much better. Carlos Spencer was a joy to watch and I loved watching him play, but it never crossed my mind that he would be picked ahead of Andrew Mehrtens. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut those were days when benches weren\u2019t sophisticated and that counts as well, because if they needed Carlos for 20 to come and win it from behind, you\u2019d bring him on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In French rugby, teams have been built around \u201cle petit general\u201d at number 9. Yet in latter years the rivalry between Romain Ntamack and Matthieu Jalibert has also generated fierce debate and polarised opinions. <\/p>\n

\u201cNtamack, when everyone\u2019s fit and well, has a huge advantage in that he\u2019s got the world\u2019s best rugby player playing beside him,\u201d Barnes points out in reference to Antoine Dupont being his half-back partner with Toulouse. \u201cThe 9-10 have that symbiotic link. So that gives Ntamack an advantage.\u201d <\/p>\n

Barnes also cites Jalibert\u2019s \u201cbeautiful performance\u201d in guiding Bordeaux B\u00e8gles to last season\u2019s Champions Cup final win over Northampton.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Friendships parked ahead of first Leinster-Munster showdown of the seasonOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

And so back to Prendergast and Crowley, which Barnes describes as \u201cthe best 10 rivalry in the northern hemisphere for a while\u201d. Two seasons ago, much to the puzzlement of his desk, Barnes wrote that Crowley was man-of-the-match when Munster lost 50-35 to the Sharks in Durban.<\/p>\n

\"Munster'sMunster’s Jack Crowley in Thomond Park before the match against Cardiff on October 4th. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fantastic. I watched him really closely and I thought: \u2018This kid is absolutely brilliant. His timing, his touch, his control. He\u2019s going to be a Lions 10.\u2019 I have, for a large part of last season, stayed true to Crowley. I felt he had more vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, this other bloke Prendergast starts delivering the most subtle passing game that you can imagine outside of Finn Russell. Finn Russell is the best passer there is at the moment. Prendergast has got the most fluid wrists imaginable. He can put people into space. He can make errors and seem not to care about it. He can kick a ball 60 metres to within five in the biggest arena because he\u2019s got nerves of steel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought: \u2018Jesus, I\u2019ve been a Crowley man and I\u2019m wrong.\u2019 I don\u2019t know whether there is a right or wrong because they\u2019re both very good players, but I thought Andy Farrell got it wildly wrong not taking Prendergast on the Lions tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was ridiculous. I couldn\u2019t see how Finn Smith merited being in above either of the two. I thought there was potentially a case to go Finn Russell and the two Irish players, who give you something slightly different.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I hold them in the highest esteem because when they play, I just think with Crowley: \u2018What\u2019s he going to do?\u2019 He doesn\u2019t look as elegant, but he thinks fast. <\/p>\n

\u201cPrendergast is just a thing of beauty. Now he\u2019s got to learn to tackle.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as I\u2019ve said to people, tackling is a state of mind. He\u2019s not a small bloke. He\u2019s a big guy. You don\u2019t leave a flyhalf out of the equation because he\u2019s not a good tackler. You get your defence coach to get him tackling because he\u2019s such a good player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes is still a little undecided.<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Sam Prendergast in action against Bulls in Pretoria on October 4th. Photograph: Christiaan Kotze\/Steve Haag Sports\/Inpho<\/p>\n

\u201cI switched to Prendergast because I just think he has something that no other flyhalf in Ireland has had for a long, long time. He\u2019s got magic in his hands. But he does make a few more errors than the other bloke.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s a really hard, big call. I think if Ireland are saying we want to be winning the World Cup in a few years\u2019 time, then you\u2019d be saying, which of them is more likely to be a world great and steer us all that way? I think possibly it\u2019s Prendergast. But I think Crowley is brilliant. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I say that about Prendergast with the greatest respect to the other bloke and also the proviso that you should never change your mind after one game, but you could do after the Autumn Internationals if they both played two each.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might say: \u2018You know what? I was wrong because facts change and they change quickly with flyhalves as well.\u2019 But right now, I think it\u2019s a great rivalry for Ireland because it gives them two ways of playing. If they handle the two players well and they can maintain a friendly rivalry, then it\u2019s brilliant for Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head-to-head Sam Prendergast<\/p>\n

Age<\/b>: 22.<\/p>\n

Leinster<\/b>: Played 36, points 225. <\/p>\n

Ireland<\/b>: Played 9, points 73.<\/p>\n

Jack Crowley<\/p>\n

Age<\/b>: 25.<\/p>\n

Munster<\/b>: Played 73, points 350.<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/b>: Played 26, points 153. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little cruelly perhaps, they\u2019ve been pitted against each other like two pugilists for our delectation. Yet, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,73724,12861,12311,40692,132,42271],"class_list":{"0":"post-128178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-jack-crowley","12":"tag-leinster-rugby","13":"tag-munster-rugby","14":"tag-sam-prendergast","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}