Munster head coach Clayton McMillan believes Jack Crowley couldn't have done any more to further his claims on the Ireland out-half jersey in Saturday’s "audition" against Leinster.
Rival Sam Prendergast, 22, started four of the five Six Nations games earlier this year and the pair, both overlooked by head coach Andy Farrell for the British and Irish Lions tour, split the duties over the summer, starting once each against Georgia and Portugal.
Billed as a trial match between the two out-halves, Crowley was named player of the match as he led Munster to a thoroughly deserved 31-14 victory over an out of sorts Leinster.
The 25-year-old kicked nine points off the tee, made 14 tackles and beat four defenders, as well as providing a direct assist for their second try.
Ireland are currently in Chicago preparing for Saturday week’s clash with New Zealand and McMillan went to bat for his man.
"Well, on the evidence of what I've seen and what I saw on the weekend, I think he deserves an opportunity to jump in the number 10 jersey for Ireland," said the Kiwi, who has led Munster to four wins in a row at the start of the URC season.
"Obviously, that's not my decision to make, but I'm not sure what else he could have done if last week was an audition."
McMillan admitted to enjoying a good week in the aftermath of the bonus-point victory but added that the players have quickly moved on with Connacht, who have lost two of three matches to date, coming to Limerick with a point to prove on Saturday (7.45pm).
"It’s been pretty easy [to turn the page], to be honest," said McMillan (below).
"We were delighted with the outcome on the weekend but come Monday, we just reviewed the game, like we would every other week, and just keep reminding ourselves that’s in the rear vision mirror now.
"And for all the pats on the back, it’s a short distance from that to a kick up the backside if we don’t get the job done again this weekend.
"[Connacht] potentially haven’t got the outcomes they’ve wanted from the first few rounds but they certainly haven’t been far away, they were unlucky last week [losing 28-27 to Bulls].
"A lot of the guys have talked about the rich history between Connacht and Munster and it’s never an easy game.
"We are expecting them at their best and we’ll need to be at ours if we want the desired outcome."
Under McMillan, who joined from the Chiefs at the start of the summer, Munster have announced their teams a day ahead of the official competition deadline and the Kiwi was asked what was the thinking behind that.
"That’s just what I’ve been accustomed to doing," he said.
"I would be surprised if [an opposition] team changed anything this close to the game based on a team release.
"There’s lots of benefits. I think our guys just need to get their heads in the right place, making that public nice and early I think helps.
"We’ve released a number of players to go and play for their clubs in AIL. We walk through airports where there’s thousands of people.
"I don’t know what the big need for secrecy is.
"I wondered whether others would start doing and funny enough, the last couple of weeks we’ve seen the same thing."
Meanwhile, back row Brian Gleeson (above) will be out for "six to ten weeks" after suffering an arm injury against Leinster.
Along with Edwin Edogbo, he has been due to travel with the Ireland squad to the US as cover.
"Brian’s had his surgery," said the Kiwi, who has made seven changes to the team to face Stuart Lancaster's side.
"It turned out to be a relatively sort of nasty elbow fracture and I think that’s probably going to have him out from six to ten weeks so it might be closer to the Christmas window before we next see him.
"It’s really unfortunate after he was named in a supporting role for the Irish team and the time he was out on the field, he was impressive.
"That’s a setback but that happens in rugby.
"We are grateful we’ve got someone with the experience of Gavin Coombes to come in and continue the good work he’s been doing.
Edogbo is going through the return to play protocols and is expected back for the round-six match against Stormers at the end of November.
Scrum-half Paddy Patterson was left out after feeling under the weather after his head injury, while hooker Diarmiud Barron is recoverying from a neck injury that isn’t considered serious.
However, wing Andrew Smith, who pulled up early in the Leinster game, may be sidelined for a bit longer.
McMillan said: "Couple of things going on, the hamstring and an MCL injury on the other leg.
"In the space of five minutes he had a few things go wrong.
"He’ll bounce back, not entirely sure of timeline."
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