IT WAS DURING the original lockdown back in 2020 that Sam Prendergast really started to learn the spiral kick.
He was a fifth year student in Newbridge College but the pandemic meant school all went online. Rugby got shut down, so Prendergast and his team-mates didn’t get a chance to play in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup final they had earned a place in.
With lots of time on his hands at home in Kildare, Prendergast spent hours working on his passing and kicking, including the spiral.
“I could never get it,” says the Ireland and Leinster out-half of those initial attempts to teach himself. Spiral kicks are notoriously difficult to master, much more so than the kind of end-over-end punt that is the standard kick in rugby nowadays.
Ronan O’Gara was among the former masters of the spiral, which travels through the air faster and further than an end-over-end, when done right. The margin for error is higher, which is partly why it had gone out of fashion in rugby for many years.
Prendergast is now chief among the kickers who have brought the spiral back in a big way. There is still the odd mishit, but the 22-year-old is capable of unleashing beautiful, effective spirals.
Richie Murphy, his Ireland U20 coach for two years, taught Prendergast more about spiralling, while Leinster coach and analyst Emmett Farrell, an “old-school 10″ in his playing days, has spent lots of time working with Prendergast on his kicking. More recently, Ireland assistant coach Johnny Sexton has been offering pointers.
“It had probably come out of the game but I think it’s coming back into the game and it’s quite a cool thing,” says Prendergast.
“In rugby league, it’s quite big in terms of spiral bombs, and I think it’s very effective.
“It’s just very hard to master.”
Ireland and Leinster out-half Sam Prendergast.
That just about sums up how Prendergast feels about everything in his game. Last season was a huge breakthrough campaign for the young playmaker as he became Ireland’s first-choice number 10 and helped Leinster to their URC title.
While he shot to the fore last season, Prendergast understandably feels like he has much to learn. He points to his tackling and place-kicking as two examples.
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“I would say there’s no part of my game that I’m happy with,” says Prendergast. “It’s such a complex game.
“There’s no hiding from the fact that I know I need to improve on my defensive side of the game in terms of tackling. If you want to be a top, top player in the world, defending is 50% of the game and you need to do that.
“Maybe there were a few games where there were tough learning curves for me. In those big games, it’s very important and I got it wrong too many times last year, so I need to work on that.
“There’s some days I’m very happy with my kicking, some days I’m not.
“It’s just kind of honing in on different things that can make me more consistent in my all-around game, so I’m just looking to kick on when I can get more consistent.”
The milestones came thick and fast for Prendergast last season. He hadn’t even started a Champions Cup game for Leinster when he made his Ireland debut in November, coming off the bench against Argentina before starts at out-half in wins over Fiji and Australia.
Having taken over the number 10 shirt at Leinster in the Champions Cup games during the winter, Prendergast then started four of Ireland’s five Six Nations games, was a key figure in Leinster’s URC success, and then rounded off his season with a strong performance in an Irish win against Georgia in July.
“There’s certain positives and certain negatives that stick with you from the year,” says Prendergast. “There are different things I can learn from.
Prendergast celebrates the URC title with Leinster. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
“It’s a weird one because there’s a few kind of wounds from last year in terms of certain games that just didn’t go our way, whether with Ireland or with Leinster.
“They stick with you. You try to forget about little bits of them, but you need to remember a bit of it to fuel you.
“But then also it was really nice to finish off the season with Leinster with a trophy and we really stuck together in that period and that was brilliant.”
Among the big positives were getting his Ireland debut against the Pumas, then playing alongside older brother Cian against Fiji the following weekend. They had played some GAA together growing up but that was their first-ever rugby match on the same team.
Starting the game against Australia as Irish rugby celebrated its 150th anniversary a week later was another high point.
Prendergast loved winning the Triple Crown with Ireland, particularly as he got to play in Wales’ Principality Stadium and its “rock concert” atmosphere for the first time.
Leinster getting over the line in the URC was “probably the biggest high of the season,” given that it came after they had underperformed in their Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton, taking plenty of criticism after that loss.
So what were biggest “wounds” for Prendergast? Ireland’s defeat to France in the Six Nations stands out, along with that Northampton game. He wants the lessons from those days to stand to him.
“The French game was tipped to be a huge game. We knew how good they were and it’s just a tough day to process. As in, you have to get over it quickly because we played Italy next, but it was just a tough day at the office.
“We were well in it at half time. We were really going to go after them, came out, started the second half firing, and it just didn’t happen.
“They just got on top of us and there’s a lot to learn for me as a young player in those games about playing against that quality opposition.
Prendergast after Ireland's defeat to France. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“I think it’s the same against Northampton. If I was to think personally, when it wasn’t going smoothly, like they had a great start… why couldn’t we regain control of the game? I’ve spoken to people about it and I feel like I’ve got over them mainly, but you still have to remember them for a bit of fuel.”
Prendergast says Ireland’s summer tour to Georgia and Portugal was good for him and other young players who had to step up in the absence of the big Irish Lions contingent, as well as Peter O’Mahony, Cian Healy, and Conor Murray, who had retired from Test rugby at the end of the Six Nations.
And after an enjoyable few weeks off over the summer, Prendergast is back in the thick of pre-season with Leinster.
Reclaiming the Champions Cup and retaining the URC will be their aims, while Ireland’s busy autumn campaign against New Zealand in Chicago, then Japan, Australia, and South Africa in Dublin is only around the corner.
Prendergast is clearly well aware of how he can improve his game, adding to his already exciting skillset. He has plenty of fuel to drive him on.
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'There's positives and negatives that stick with you' - Sam Prendergast
IT WAS DURING the original lockdown back in 2020 that Sam Prendergast really started to learn the spiral kick.
He was a fifth year student in Newbridge College but the pandemic meant school all went online. Rugby got shut down, so Prendergast and his team-mates didn’t get a chance to play in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup final they had earned a place in.
With lots of time on his hands at home in Kildare, Prendergast spent hours working on his passing and kicking, including the spiral.
“I could never get it,” says the Ireland and Leinster out-half of those initial attempts to teach himself. Spiral kicks are notoriously difficult to master, much more so than the kind of end-over-end punt that is the standard kick in rugby nowadays.
Ronan O’Gara was among the former masters of the spiral, which travels through the air faster and further than an end-over-end, when done right. The margin for error is higher, which is partly why it had gone out of fashion in rugby for many years.
Prendergast is now chief among the kickers who have brought the spiral back in a big way. There is still the odd mishit, but the 22-year-old is capable of unleashing beautiful, effective spirals.
Richie Murphy, his Ireland U20 coach for two years, taught Prendergast more about spiralling, while Leinster coach and analyst Emmett Farrell, an “old-school 10″ in his playing days, has spent lots of time working with Prendergast on his kicking. More recently, Ireland assistant coach Johnny Sexton has been offering pointers.
“It had probably come out of the game but I think it’s coming back into the game and it’s quite a cool thing,” says Prendergast.
“In rugby league, it’s quite big in terms of spiral bombs, and I think it’s very effective.
“It’s just very hard to master.”
That just about sums up how Prendergast feels about everything in his game. Last season was a huge breakthrough campaign for the young playmaker as he became Ireland’s first-choice number 10 and helped Leinster to their URC title.
While he shot to the fore last season, Prendergast understandably feels like he has much to learn. He points to his tackling and place-kicking as two examples.
“I would say there’s no part of my game that I’m happy with,” says Prendergast. “It’s such a complex game.
“There’s no hiding from the fact that I know I need to improve on my defensive side of the game in terms of tackling. If you want to be a top, top player in the world, defending is 50% of the game and you need to do that.
“Maybe there were a few games where there were tough learning curves for me. In those big games, it’s very important and I got it wrong too many times last year, so I need to work on that.
“There’s some days I’m very happy with my kicking, some days I’m not.
“It’s just kind of honing in on different things that can make me more consistent in my all-around game, so I’m just looking to kick on when I can get more consistent.”
The milestones came thick and fast for Prendergast last season. He hadn’t even started a Champions Cup game for Leinster when he made his Ireland debut in November, coming off the bench against Argentina before starts at out-half in wins over Fiji and Australia.
Having taken over the number 10 shirt at Leinster in the Champions Cup games during the winter, Prendergast then started four of Ireland’s five Six Nations games, was a key figure in Leinster’s URC success, and then rounded off his season with a strong performance in an Irish win against Georgia in July.
“There’s certain positives and certain negatives that stick with you from the year,” says Prendergast. “There are different things I can learn from.
“It’s a weird one because there’s a few kind of wounds from last year in terms of certain games that just didn’t go our way, whether with Ireland or with Leinster.
“They stick with you. You try to forget about little bits of them, but you need to remember a bit of it to fuel you.
“But then also it was really nice to finish off the season with Leinster with a trophy and we really stuck together in that period and that was brilliant.”
Among the big positives were getting his Ireland debut against the Pumas, then playing alongside older brother Cian against Fiji the following weekend. They had played some GAA together growing up but that was their first-ever rugby match on the same team.
Starting the game against Australia as Irish rugby celebrated its 150th anniversary a week later was another high point.
Prendergast loved winning the Triple Crown with Ireland, particularly as he got to play in Wales’ Principality Stadium and its “rock concert” atmosphere for the first time.
Leinster getting over the line in the URC was “probably the biggest high of the season,” given that it came after they had underperformed in their Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton, taking plenty of criticism after that loss.
So what were biggest “wounds” for Prendergast? Ireland’s defeat to France in the Six Nations stands out, along with that Northampton game. He wants the lessons from those days to stand to him.
“The French game was tipped to be a huge game. We knew how good they were and it’s just a tough day to process. As in, you have to get over it quickly because we played Italy next, but it was just a tough day at the office.
“We were well in it at half time. We were really going to go after them, came out, started the second half firing, and it just didn’t happen.
“They just got on top of us and there’s a lot to learn for me as a young player in those games about playing against that quality opposition.
“I think it’s the same against Northampton. If I was to think personally, when it wasn’t going smoothly, like they had a great start… why couldn’t we regain control of the game? I’ve spoken to people about it and I feel like I’ve got over them mainly, but you still have to remember them for a bit of fuel.”
Prendergast says Ireland’s summer tour to Georgia and Portugal was good for him and other young players who had to step up in the absence of the big Irish Lions contingent, as well as Peter O’Mahony, Cian Healy, and Conor Murray, who had retired from Test rugby at the end of the Six Nations.
And after an enjoyable few weeks off over the summer, Prendergast is back in the thick of pre-season with Leinster.
Reclaiming the Champions Cup and retaining the URC will be their aims, while Ireland’s busy autumn campaign against New Zealand in Chicago, then Japan, Australia, and South Africa in Dublin is only around the corner.
Prendergast is clearly well aware of how he can improve his game, adding to his already exciting skillset. He has plenty of fuel to drive him on.
Sam Prendergast was speaking at Canterbury and Intersport Elverys’ launch of the 2025/256 Ireland jersey.
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highs and lows Ireland IRFU Leinster Sam Prendergast spiral