Sam Prendergast: 'I'd see myself as a different person to him but I get along great with him'

“It was just great to read about his different little situations and he has a different back story to a lot of people. I would have known a bit of it maybe from his brother Mark [who was attack coach on Prendergast’s Ireland U20s side] but it was a good read, I thought.” 

Capped three times for Ireland during the November internationals, Leinster’s Sam Prendergast has followed that with successive starts in the Champions Cup. Picture:  ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

Whether it’s the cropped hair, the angular frame, the preternatural self-assurance and abilities on the field or, of course, the number on their backs, the similarities between Johnny Sexton and Sam Prendergast are numerous and obvious.

The younger of them has a long, long way to go if he is to come close to Sexton’s list of achievements but, at 21 years of age, Prendergast has made a head start on the former Ireland captain who was 24 when he really broke into the Leinster team.