Jack Crowley and Mannie Libbok can use URC final as World Cup audition

Munster’s arrival in Cape Town earlier this week will have been less foreboding than for most clubs preparing to face the Stormers. When the teams met in Thomond Park in October 2021, Jack O’Donoghue led the way with two tries in Munster’s 34-18 win.

In this year’s meeting at the DHL Stadium, Munster again won 26-24. Stormers have won their last three matches, but Munster are still in their heads as having been the team to have most recently beaten them.

Joey Carbery and Ben Healy were on the scoreboard in the first match with Jack Crowley and Healy among the points when the sides met last month. Munster have brought three outhalves to Cape Town – Carbery, Crowley and Healy, who is due to complete the return to play protocols this week.

For the Stormers, it was outhalf Manie Libbok, who collected points in each of the meetings with Munster. Libbok has emerged to become one of the most influential players on the South African team roster.

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In the Stormers semi-final win over Connacht, the on fire 25-year-old was responsible for 23 of his team’s 43 points. He was also the only player to score two tries in the last round and has assisted more tries with kicks than any other player (five).

If it is Crowley who starts on Saturday, as he did last month, his face off with Libbok will be one of the defining cameos of the final, which was sold out in less than three hours when the tickets went on sale last Thursday. The most expensive was category A for 375 rand or €18.06 and the cheapest, category D cost 80 rand or €3.85.

The Munster pack will determine how much quality ball Stormers get, but Libbok’s influence under licence from coach John Dobson is to be his mercurial self and, within reason, not to be risk averse.

Closer to the mold of Scotland’s Finn Russell, Crowley can expect the unexpected. Libbok kicks crossfield equally well with either foot, he breaks forward, has gliding pace and a flat pass, enough of a mixed bag to keep most team’s guessing.

Against Connacht in the semi-final, Stormers’ first points came by way of a try from right wing Angelo Davids, who took a pinpoint crosskick from Libbok before finishing. The outhalf has also played more minutes than any other player in the Stormers squad, 1,141 minutes in 18 United Rugby Championship (URC) games.

The only player in the Munster squad who comes close to that consistency of playing is Shane Daly, who has 1,336 minutes in his legs over 17 matches. Crowley, who recently won the Rugby Players Ireland Nevin Spence Young Player of the Year award, has played in 14 of Munster’s games, Healy 13 and Carbery in 12 this season.

In a recent piece on the website Rugbypass, Dobson spoke about the “tax” they pay when entrusting a game to a player such as Libbok, who struggled for game time when he played with the Bulls and Sharks. He represents an adventurous style and when he sees space attacks. Dobson is gladly paying the taxes.

“Manie comes from a tough background financially, and he felt vulnerable and just wanted to be backed,” said Dobson last year. “He was quite dramatically insecure when he came to us, and it was all about telling him your playing next week. With Manie you never go back correctively and tell him he did something wrong. If he is properly confident he is imperious.

“Before he came to us, the only person who really supported him was Mitch [John Mitchell]. It was when I saw him play for Mitch at the Bulls, and Mitch’s endorsement of Manie at that time, that I recognised Manie’s special talents.”

Crowley’s growing confidence should make their meeting in the final not just a contrast of styles but a challenge to self-belief and confidence. If timing counts, in his most recent outing, Crowley showed shades of Ronan O’Gara in Munster’s semi-final win over Leinster. The Innishannon man scored the crucial pressure drop goal for the one-point, 16-15 win that secured passage to the final.

Making it all look simple, Crowley slipped into the pocket and signalled to scrumhalf Craig Casey that he was set. Casey delivered crisply and despite the efforts of onrushing Ryan Baird, kept his head to accurately drop the goal and trot up the pitch shaking his finger.

If they line out as expected Libbok will make for a fascinating challenge to the vigilance of Crowley. With the South African always forcing teams to engage with him, there can be no tuning out. For the player who couldn’t find a place on a starting XV not so many years ago, it’s an audition for a place in this year’s World Cup in France. And for Crowley too.