What time and TV channel is Munster v Ospreys on at today in the URC?
Jack Crowley made the Ireland No.10 jersey his own last season. Starting a new term tonight, the 24-year-old will be eyeing up a starring role with the Lions next summer.
Jack Crowley's season starts in Cork tonight for Munster - and he wants it to end in the Lions' No.10 jersey in Sydney on August 2 next year.
The 24-year-old is one of the big guns that Munster are rolling out against Ospreys in the wake of their seismic loss at Zebre last weekend, with Tadhg Beirne and Peter O'Mahony also making their campaign bow. A big response is expected.
There's a yellow weather warning on Leeside but the worst of the conditions will hopefully pass through before kick-off. Either way, Crowley has to hit the ground running to direct Munster's on-field production.
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New Reds skipper Beirne believes the evolution in the out-half's game will be evident this season and that the province will be the better for it.
“He’s definitely more mature, move vocal for sure," said Beirne. “He’s not as…erratic, would be the word. He’s calm now and you can see how much better he is when he is calm.
“At times when he came in, he had that sense of ‘I need to prove myself here’. But he has got that out of his game and that’s why he’s become such a good No. 10.”
For Munster's defence coach Denis Leamy, there's a real resemblance in Crowley's development to the path taken by Johnny Sexton as he came through to establish himself as Leinster and Ireland's top out-half.
"Ah the scope is huge, like," said Leamy. "He's still such a young player and he still has so much to learn, and I think Jack would be the first one to tell you that.
"So his ability to get better is huge and he's definitely somebody interested in terms of his growth mindset and he's interested in getting better."
Where is the game on?
The game takes place at Virgin Media Park in Cork
What time is kick-off?
The game kicks off at 7.35pm on Saturday
What TV channel is it on and can I stream it?
It is being shown live on RTE 2 and Premier Sports 1. It will be live streamed on URC.tv
Betting Odds
Munster 1/9 to win, Ospreys 5/1 to win; draw 50/1
Teams
Munster: Mike Haley, Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Bryan Fitzgerald, Shay McCarthy, Jack Crowley, Craig Casey, Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Oli Jager, Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (CAPT), Peter O'Mahony, John Hodnett, Jack O'Donoghue
Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, John Ryan, Stephen Archer, Fineen Wycherley, Gavin Coombes, Conor Murray, Tony Butler, Jack Daly
Ospreys: Max Nagy, Iestyn Hopkins, Owen Watkin, Phil Cokanasiga, Ryan Conbeer, Dan Edwards, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Steffan Thomas, Dewi Lake, Tom Botha, Huw Sutton, Adam Beard, James Ratti, Jac Morgan (CAPT) Morgan Morris
Replacements: Sam Parry, Garyn Phillips, Ben Warren, Lewis Jones, Harri Deaves, Luke Davies, Jack Walsh, Keiran Williams
Crowley comparison to Johnny Sexton
Leamy added: "You know, his conversations, he's into the coaches constantly, he's very diligent in how he's looking to grow his game and he's a real pro, a great kid to be around and I enjoy personally working with him so much and I just think who knows how good he's going to be?
“I’d the pleasure of working with Johnny Sexton as a player, I played against him and coached him. If you told me Johnny Sexton would go on to achieve what he would when he was a raw 24-year-old, you couldn’t say he’d become that player.
“Jack is in that sort of bracket where he can keep layering and layering and layering. Time will tell how good he can be.”
Munster beat Ospreys in last year's URC quarter-final. Leamy described tonight's visitors to Virgin Media Park as the most underrated team in the competition, and he praises the Welsh team's "quality and spirit".
He added: “Teams like that are a handful, they’ve got quality. The main thing is that it’s very much about what we bring, that’s the key message. We’ve got to look at ourselves, what we do well and while there’s a very good team against us we’ve got to get ourselves right.”
Skipper Beirne added: “They’re a good side, you look at the team sheet you kind of forget how many good players they have, young guys putting their hands up for international selection.
“We played them in the quarter-final last season, we made it harder than we should have, but they’ll be coming over looking for a win. They should have beaten Dragons in the first weekend, they put a good score up on Stormers.
“It’s going to be a tough game, but we’ve a good track record in Cork and hopefully we keep that up.”
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