When the Eire workforce have been offered jerseys for the ultimate Take a look at of 2024 towards Australia at their Shelbourne Lodge base on Wednesday night, they got them by legendary former fly-half Ollie Campbell.
The irony is not going to have been misplaced on skilled watchers of Irish Rugby.
It was Campbell, in spite of everything, who shaped one half of Eire’s first nice quantity 10 debate.
His back-and-forth with Tony Ward was maybe the facet’s most well-known divide over crucial jersey within the sport, however sequels would come with David Humphreys over Ronan O’Gara after which O’Gara versus Johnny Sexton.
That the latter would develop into the primary title on the teamsheet for over a decade put a brief halt to such chatter, however the skipper’s retirement after final yr’s World Cup has led to a widespread renaissance.
Munster’s Jack Crowley received the primary crack and led the facet to a implausible win towards France within the first recreation of the post-Sexton period that arrange a Six Nations title triumph.
The 24-year-old was nonetheless in situ by the summer season tour to South Africa however the journey ended with substitute Ciaran Frawley snatching glory with a pair of late drop-goals to beat the back-to-back world champions in Durban.
Crowley nonetheless began the defeat by the All Blacks to start this month however underperformed in a exhibiting that was down throughout the board.
Towards Argentina every week later, his sturdy first-half exhibiting was seemingly misplaced within the shuffle after the debut of Sam Prendergast off the bench set tongues wagging.
The Leinsterman was handed a primary begin towards Fiji in recreation three of the autumn, his efficiency that includes a yellow card, just a few errors, however loads of the fashionable touches which have had the previous under-20s standout marked as one to look at for fairly a while.
