AS HE WAS handed his Six Nations ‘Rising Player’ trophy and congratulated by RTÉ’s Claire McNamara, Sam Prendergast was typically self-effacing.

“It’s been a mixed bag, like,” Prendergast said of his maiden championship, which was also exactly how he described his first Six Nations start against England last month.

“I think everyone in the group would say the same over the tournament,” added the Leinster out-half, who replaced Jack Crowley from the bench in the 64th minute of Ireland’s unconvincing bonus-point victory over Italy in Rome.

Prendergast, like virtually every Irish player not named Dan Sheehan, was guilty of forcing things slightly even during his own brief cameo, with one bridge pass finding touch after an initially tidy Sexton loop by the 22-year-old.

There was still a touch or two of class from the Kildare man, who afterwards drew parallels between the erraticism of some of Ireland’s individual performances and the team’s campaign overall.

A championship tilt ultimately became a lesson for Ireland over the final two game weeks, which will disappoint supporters in the short-term but should benefit the likes of Prendergast down the line.

“We’ve had some unbelievable highs, winning the Triple Crown,” Prendergast said. “We started off so well with some great wins but last week was obviously a tough experience and we had to get over that quickly and put on a performance this week.

“It maybe wasn’t our best again today”, Prendergast clarified, “but we managed to get over the line against a really tough side.

“So, yeah, happy but loads of learnings and loads of things I can take forward.”

Prendergast was full of praise for Italy, insisting that Ireland pretty much expected to be taken to the wire by an “unbelievable side.”

The out-half, who watched more than an hour of the game from the bench while Crowley produced his own mixed bag at 10, was then asked how he tunes out the constant discourse surrounding his status in the team.

“Yeah, like, I’ve got a lot of good people around me, whether it’s in the squad or back at home,” Prendergast said. “There’s a lot of good people to give you advice, to bounce ideas off.

“I’ve just been trying to focus on the task at hand and keep trying to get better and try to block all of that (noise) out, because I can’t really control that.”

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True to form, Prendergast laughed off the suggestion that he might find himself on a plane to Australia with the Lions this summer: “I don’t know about that now, to be honest.”

As Ireland’s Six Nations campaign wound down, the team’s young out-half was keen to do the same — but first there would be a few pints for Cian Healy, Peter O’Mahony, and Conor Murray whose test careers have ended just as Prendergast has been named the Six Nations Rising Star.

“I’m looking forward to the end of the season with Leinster and looking forward to signing off three absolute greats of Irish rugby”, Prendergast said, “and just getting around them and spending the night with them.”