Ronan O'Gara: Crowley can't sulk. He's now the hunter. This is a long, cold war

Do they see a future for Salah at Anfield and for how long? And what is the price of that future? Are they future-proofing by keeping their Egyptian thirtysomething or letting him off? How prepared is Salah to dance, to meet Liverpool halfway. Or is he looking to make these final years count in terms of financial security? Arne Slot’s squad saw off Real Madrid to make it five from five in the Champions League but they are acutely aware of one of the great truisms of professional team sport – it’s all about managing the players and their expectations.

Contracts are a fundamental employment tool in professional sport and the temptation to subtract the human element is considerable. But for a player, they are also the means by which he protects his wife and family and puts food on the table and the kids through school. Every situation is different. When a player is burning it up, the club is looking at his contract to extend. When he is stinking the place out, the club is looking at his contract in a very different way.

These are things you see from the other side when you are responsible for budgets. If a GAA manager feels that one of his key players is acting the clown, he just sits him down or leaves him out of the squad. When you have a player on a big contract at a professional ball club - a contract that may not run parallel in time with that of his manager or head coach - it can cause all sorts of problems.

Sometimes with zeros in the bank, they forget their rugby. Sometimes when the contract is too long, it’s human nature to do the calculations and see a comfort zone in your future. Appetite is a great source of sports nutrition. If you have the appetite to succeed and get better, you are 50% of the way there already. If you don’t have that it’s a long way back and a tough needle to thread for the coach and the club. You try the stick. You try the carrot. It could be a lack of confidence. You take away the minutes a player lives and breathes for, you dilute confidence. But there has to be consequences for sub-standard work.

That goes across the sporting spectrum, from club to international. The Ireland ten conversation has moved into a tricky space. Jack Crowley hasn’t pulled away from his young rivals this autumn. That there is now three chasing the jersey is a plus, especially at the tail end of 2024, three years out from the next World Cup. I felt Crowley would be selected to start against the Wallabies on Saturday because management would want to finish the series well with their best fifteen. Clearly that’s a misread by me of management’s perspective. ‘He deserves to start’, Andy Farrell says of Sam Prendergast, every word a sickener for Jack Crowley.

The Munster man had a strong 40 minutes against Argentina but his third quarter featured too many errors for a test ten. Demolishing France in Marseille in his maiden Six Nations campaign created unrealistic expectations heading into his second season. This is where good management is essential.

The position is a delicate conversation at the best of times. As a coach, I know I am harder on my out-halves than I am with any other player because I know the position and managed games in my sleep for 15 years. I understand rugby, I get it, and players know I know my onions. When you played in that position all your career, you can talk competently. Right now, Jack probably feels a little friendless and that the deck is loaded against him in Ireland camp. His two rivals play for a team that is generally superior to their opposition. Crowley, meanwhile, has water rising above his ankles in Munster. This is a long, cold war.
He might sulk though I doubt it. There will be ‘friends’ in his ear saying they can’t believe Andy Farrell has gone with a 'little boy blue' from Leinster who has around twenty games to his name between club and country.

The plain truth is that there must be those in the Irish camp who already believe Sam Prendergast is a better option at ten for Ireland, irrespective of his relative inexperience.

This column cannot berate Ireland’s management on the one hand for continually getting the World Cup cycles wrong and then on the other for looking at all their options to give them the best chance of getting beyond the quarter finals. With Farrell heading off on preliminary Lions planning (though not leaving planet Earth, remember…) after the weekend, the temptation to take another look at Prendergast against Tier 1 opposition is too great. He has a sense of what Crowley is doing and can do, but he is clearly sweet on the potential of last year’s U20. He speaks of Prendergast with a paternal fondness and senses Ireland have something special in the oven.

I think it’s premature to be getting excited. There has been a gross over-reaction to Prendergast’s initial outings in green. I watched his 20 minutes against Argentina and the Fiji game, and he is exactly what you’d expect from a rookie making his second appearance for his country. Starting Saturday is a very different proposition to starting against Fiji.

I have a theory on modern-day tens functioning in a modern-day culture. The pre-occupation with data being fed to them, allied to their reliance on computers doing the heavy lifting has produced a different sort of out-half. It’s produced a different sort of person! There is an increased trend of less game management and more playbook rugby. How many tens watch tape and collaborate with their colleagues on actual game management? There was a time Australia's Stephen Larkham would have been seen as something of a maverick but he’d be borderline conventional by today’s game management standards. In the last ten years a lot of fellas playing the game are happy to be told what to do and like to be directed. In our time it was more collaborative.

We don’t quite know what Ireland has in terms of playmakers. Three years out from the next World Cup that is a good thing. For what they will glean from playing the Wallabies on Saturday, Irish management might just get a more productive eighty minutes with Prendergast starting and Crowley coming on. All of a sudden, the Leinster rookie is the hunted and Crowley is the pursuer. 

Things can look very different after eighty minutes. I sat down to watch Australia at Murrayfield last Sunday and came away thinking that almost the entire Scottish backline could figure in a Lions test team in Australia next summer.

There was another good reason to be watching. La Rochelle’s Will Skelton was due to return from Wallaby camp to his club after the game. Had Australia won, they’d have been chasing a tour grand slam. There’s good respect between Will and I but I wouldn’t have liked making that call had the Wallabies won. He won’t say it because we pay his wages, but deep down had they beaten Scotland it would have been mentally tough for him. Here are the Wallabies, flying to Dublin to take on Ireland and Will is heading back to France to prep for Vannes in the Top 14. 

It wouldn’t be very fair on the guy, but circumstances made it easier for all concerned. It’s also his 100th cap for the club Saturday – it would be nice to stand up tall for a fella I'd happily walk down the meanest street with.