A little cruelly perhaps, they’ve been pitted against each other like two pugilists for our delectation. Yet, a little oddly, Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley will finally face off for the first time ever in this Saturday’s Leinster v Munster set-to at Croke Park (kick-off 5.15pm).

After all, their claims for the Irish number 10 jersey have generated more debate than any other individual rivalry for the last year, yet squad rotation and game management meant each in turn missed the home legs of last season’s derbies. A marquee fixture missing one of the two main protagonists for the Irish 10 jersey seemed daft.

Not any more. In recent weeks, the opposing young 10s in the famed blue and red jerseys have had top billing. Nor can the mainstream media be blamed for stoking the rivalry. Well, not entirely anyway.

In addition to social media, the marketing departments of both Leinster and the URC have made prominent use of both young men, as well as images of Johnny Sexton infamously roaring at a prostrate Ronan O’Gara in that 2009 Champions Cup semi-final at, appropriately, Croke Park.

Heated outhalf rivalries are hardly new. Rewind to the first of a two-Test series in 1979 Australia when Tony Ward had just been named European Player of the Year. Not even Ollie Campbell, who landed in Australia with just one cap, expected to be named at 10.

But so it came to pass, creating such a furore that the Irish Press front page headline read “Ward out, Campbell in”, and it was given higher priority than a piece about the pope coming to visit Ireland.