Sam Prendergast ready to take his shot with Ireland U20s

Great opportunity brings with it the pressure to make it count. No young player could have a better appreciation of the need to strike when the iron is hot than Sam Prendergast who has already seen one big chance cruelly denied before grasping another.

SIX NATIONS RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP 2023

Your home for the latest news, views and analysis of this year's Six Nations Championship from our award winning sports team.

SIX NATIONS RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP 2023

Your home for the latest news, views and analysis of this year's Six Nations Championship from our award winning sports team.

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Prendergast was in fifth year in Newbridge College in 2020 when the school secured a place in the Leinster Senior Schools Cup final against Kildare neighbours Clongowes Wood. Or so they thought. Covid dictated otherwise. The game never got played.

“I remember being particularly disappointed for the sixth years because we didn’t know much about Covid and we thought we would get another crack at it the next year but it turns out we didn’t.

“There was a good few people travelling home from different countries like Australia to come and watch the game. We had a lot of support behind us after that semi-final so, yeah, very disappointing.” 

Two years and change later and Prendergast was making the most of his audition with Richie Murphy’s Ireland U20s, kicking the last of his 15 points against England from long-range late on to seal a one-point win. It was just his second start.

A superb, try-scoring performance followed against Scotland and the Leinster out-half is back in the U20 ranks again this season and eager to continue on in a similar vein of form in what will be his first crack at the Six Nations.

“It was good exposure to see what the intensity is like at that level but, from talking to the coaches, it looks like Six Nations will be a step up again. We were probably a bit off where we needed to be (in the summer) for where we need to be now.”

The coaches haven’t been alone in prepping him for the challenges to come this next few months. Older brother Cian, now a key man with Connacht and part of Andy Farrell’s senior operations, has shared his 20s experiences with him too.

Sam is 6’ 4” and switched to out-half from scrum-half after a growth spurt in school. His is an outsized frame (for his position) that is perfectly in keeping with an Ireland team that is physically more imposing than most down the years.

The younger sibling hasn’t banked the amount of game time he would have liked this term. He was needed as out-half cover with Leinster for the opening months of the season and he has since had bits and pieces of game time.

There was 40 minutes scrounged against Chile in November, three halves of football with Lansdowne and a few runs for the Ireland U20s in recent challenge games against Italy and some of the provincial development sides.

Not ideal.

Prendergast is one of only seven players in the current panel to have played for the 20s last season but he has seen the side gel that bit more with every game played as head coach Richie Murphy and his staff mould the team to their satisfaction.

“They’re really good at helping you understand why they want you to do stuff and then it’s just so much easier to make the decision on the pitch. When you understand that it is so much easier to understand what they are looking for.

“Mark (Sexton) with the attack and Richie with the overall game - and then the kicking especially as well – means you know the pictures you are looking for and it is easier to make those split-second decisions.”

Ireland U20s (v Wales): J Nicholson (UCD/Leinster); I Anagu (La Rochelle/IQ Rugby), H Cooney (Clontarf/Leinster), J Devine (Corinthians/Connacht), H Gavin (Galwegians/Connacht); S Prendergast (Lansdowne/Leinster), F Gunne (Terenure/Leinster); G Hadden (Clontarf/Leinster), G McCarthy (UCD/Leinster), P McCarthy (DUFC/Leinster); D Mangan (UCD/Leinster), C O’Tighernaigh (UCD/Leinster); J McNabney (Ballymena/Ulster), R Quinn (Old Crescent/Munster), B Gleeson (Garryowen/Munster).

Replacements: D Sheahan (UCC/Munster), G Morris (Lansdowne/Leinster), F Barrett (Corinthians/Connacht), E O’Connell (UL Bohemians/Munster), J Sheahan (UCC/Munster), O Cawley (Naas/Leinster), H West (Buccaneers/Connacht), H McErlean (Terenure/Leinster).