Prendergast - 'None of us have thought past the England game'

Ireland fly-half Sam Prendergast is keeping his feet firmly on the ground and only thinking one game at a time.

ONE GAME AT A TIME: Sam Prendergast is only thinking about the England game. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

For the star of a Six Nations Grand Slam-winning campaign, and with a couple of senior caps with Leinster already on his CV, it would be tempting for Ireland Under-20s fly-half Sam Prendergast to buy into the hype and big future many expect to unfold for him.

The career trajectory would certainly get improve with a strong showing at the World Rugby Under-20 Championships which start in South Africa tomorrow afternoon when Ireland’s campaign gets underway with a Pool B opener against Six Nations rivals England at Paarl Gymnasium near Cape Town.

Yet as far as the 20-year-old playmaker from Newbridge, Co. Kildare is concerned there is nothing to concentrate him or any other members of Richie Murphy’s squad beyond this first match.

“None of us have thought past the England game, we are not thinking of the big picture,” Prendergast said yesterday from Cape Town. “We are 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 20s 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.” 

Prendergast was yesterday handed the number 10 jersey for tomorrow’s game and will reprise the half-back partnership with scrum-half and fellow Leinsterman Fintan Gunne that guided Ireland to a clean sweep in the Six Nations earlier this year, the Grand Slam secured on home ground in Cork with a victory over tomorrow’s opponents.

Gunne and Prendergast were ever-present in the campaign and they were named in a settled side by Murphy yesterday showing just two changes and two positional switches from the XV which started the 36-24 victory over England at Musgrave Park on March 19. The head coach has recalled right wing Andrew Osborne and lock Evan O’Connell after injuries hampered their involvements in the Six Nations while powerhouse No.8 Brian Gleeson must settle for a place on the bench after a minor knock restricted his training time in the pre-tournament build-up.

Murphy yesterday praised the tightknit nature of his squad and Prendergast also recognised the progress made since the head coach first convened the class of 2023 at the turn of the year. That Ireland will go into the championships as one of the title favourites says much about that rapid development from scratch squad to world title contenders.

“I suppose being exposed to such good coaches has helped that and being able to review games,” the fly-half said. “As a team we have come a long way since the first game. In the first game (against Wales) in Colwyn Bay we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We were slow to start but as the tournament went on, we were able to find out feet a bit better and ended up winning the Six Nations.

“As a team we have progressed but that is down to the level of coaching that we are getting. Everyone individually is improving because of that as well.” 

Preparations on the ground in South Africa’s Western Cape have been hampered by heavy rain this week and the Ireland boss said access to match venue Paarl Gymnasium had been limited while there had also been issues at their assigned training venue at Hamilton Rugby Club, next door to the Stormers’ Cape Town stadium.

“We haven't been in Paarl Gym yet,” Murphy said. “We arrived in Cape Town, our training ground was Hamilton and unfortunately it was practically unplayable. We did a very light run on it on Wednesday, which was way below that standard that Junior World Championships should be training in.

“Today we got a decent run out, we got a new pitch and are in a good place now. We haven't been at Paarl, the captain's runs at Paarl have been cancelled which is probably the right thing to do considering there is three games on it in a day.

“It's going to be interesting to see how it holds up. We've had a member of our staff at the pitch and he says it's in good condition. We'll go there with our kickers tomorrow and get a feel for it.” 

Prendergast is prepared for the possibility of a tweak to the Ireland gameplan if the Paarl surface remains sticky tomorrow, when his side take the field for the second of three games in one day on the grass pitch.

“You are always looking to take the best option whether that is kicking or running. Especially if it is going to be played on heavy pitches it has to be a bit more territory focused. We will see what the pitch is like tomorrow and be able to gauge that from there.” 

IRELAND U20: H McErlean (Leinster); A Osborne (Leinster), H Cooney (Leinster), J Devine (Connacht), H Gavin (Connacht); S Prendergast (Leinster), F Gunne (Leinster); G Hadden (Leinster), G McCarthy (Leinster) – captain, P McCarthy (Leinster); E O’Connell (Munster), C O’Tighearnaigh (Leinster); D Mangan (Leinster), R Quinn (Munster), J McNabney (Ulster).

Replacements: M Clein (Munster), G Morris (Leinster), F Barrett (Connacht), C Irvine (Ulster), B Gleeson (Munster), O Cawley (Leinster), M Lynch (Leinster), J Nicholson (Leinster) 

ENGLAND U20: S Harris (Bath); T Elliott (Harlequins), R Ma’asi-White (Sale Sharks) J Woodward (Leicester Tigers), J Jenkins (Bristol Bears); C Slevin (Harlequins), C Bracken (Saracens); A Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks), F Theobald-Thomas (Gloucester), A Fasogbon; H Cuckson (Bath), L Chessum (Leicester Tigers) – captain; F Carnduff (Leicester Tigers), G Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs), C Cunningham-South (Harlequins).

Replacements: N Jibulu (Harlequins), A McArthur (Gloucester), J Halliwell (Bristol Bears), N Michelow (Saracens), T Woodman (Sale Sharks), N Thomas (Sale Sharks), L Johnson (Newcastle Falcons), J Cusick (Leicester Tigers).