A GOOD YEAR could be about to get even better for Sam Prendergast. This time last summer, the Kildare native was preparing for the opening rounds of a rather low-key U20 Summer Series. Since then, he’s helped steer the Ireland U20s to a Grand Slam and impressed on his first two starts for Leinster in the URC, so much so that his name entered the public conversation around World Cup training squads.
The call from Andy Farrell didn’t come, so instead, Prendergast finds himself in South Africa as the Ireland U20s look to make their mark at the U20 World Championships, a competition which is back on the calendar for the first time since 2019. It looks the perfect platform for the highly-rated young outhalf to finish a fine season on a high.
“I suppose I’ve obviously developed (over the last year), but that’s probably down to a lot of the exposure in terms of coaching,” Prendergast explains.
“High-level coaching all summer with the coaches we have at the moment. Getting to train for the majority of the year with Leinster as well is pretty good. A huge part of development would have been the high level of coaching I’ve received and the high level of training that has led into games.”
And the games have gone very well for the out-half. Prendergast was the star of Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning campaign and impressed again when handed his first taste of senior action with Leinster – playing 160 minutes away to the Lions (where he was player of the match) and the Bulls.
“It was really good,” he continues.
“All year, when I’ve been in with Leinster, I’ve just been prepping the lads to play for whichever game was coming. It was nice to then be on the other side of that, prepping for the game myself and just being able to get that mentoring off the coaches preparing you for a game.
“That was kind of nice and then also being around quite experienced players like Rhys Ruddock, Ed Byrne, Max Deegan, Nick McCarthy. Lads like that who are able to help you through the week and show you little things to help, which is quite good.”
One notable name he doesn’t mention is that of Johnny Sexton, the man he’s been tipped to succeed in the Leinster 10 shirt.
“I have chatted to him a few times. I probably haven’t been that involved in the weeks that he has been there. At the start of the year when he was fit for Leinster, I was kind of on a bit of a development block preparing for the (U20) Six Nations.
“But any time I was called on in Leinster, he was away playing Six Nations, November internationals. I have chatted to him but I have only ever trained with him a handful of times really. It’s been great to get to chat with him.”
A stronger influence would be Connacht and Ireland forward Cian Prendergast, who is three years older than his younger brother.
“We probably became our closest during lockdown when we were both at home. He had been living in Dublin for the couple of years previous to that, and then since being in lockdown, he has been on an upward trajectory.
It’s been cool getting to see him develop as a player and become more professional. Getting to go to his games as well and seeing him succeed has been great.
“It’s a busy time for the family at the moment. He’s at home. I’d say he probably would have liked to have come over here to catch a couple of games, but he’s got more important things to be doing – training for the World Cup and hopefully getting into the squad for France. But listen, it’s been great to him succeed over the last couple of years.”
The Ireland U20s open their World Championship campaign against England in Paarl tomorrow [KO 12.30pm, Virgin Media 2] before further pool games against Australia and Fiji. The squad’s preparations for the tournament have been heavily disrupted due to poor weather conditions in South Africa, with the pitch at their training base labelled “unplayable” by head coach Richie Murphy and today’s Captain’s Run cancelled in a bid to protect a surface which is due to hold three games tomorrow.
“It wasn’t ideal yesterday (Wednesday), but a lot of us would be used to not a great pitch. We wouldn’t have spoken about it too much, we just tried to get on with our training. If the pitch we’re playing on in the match is like that, so be it. We’ve got to adapt and got to be able to play on that pitch. We can’t really do much about it. We just need to be able to alter little bits of our game to suit those kinds of conditions.”
Ireland’s last competitive game was a Grand Slam-clinching win over England at Musgrave Park, and tomorrow’s opener is set to be another fiery encounter as both sides look to get off to a winning start in a tough group.
“None of us have thought past the England game, we are not thinking of the big picture,” Prendergast adds.
“We’re just thinking what we need to do better than the Six Nations and what we need to do to beat England. That’s an end focus. You see from previous U20s World Cups the quality of player that comes through. That’s great but it also shows you what sort of opposition we will be up against. We haven’t thought big picture too much, we have just been thinking about England.
“They have a lot of very good individuals, a very good backrow, some outside backs that are very quick. They are a very powerful team and they did cause us a lot of problems in Musgrave Park so we are prepared for that and are hopefully better equipped to deal with that.”
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