Focus turns to Russell as Prendergast looks to build on 'mixed' Six Nations bow

The Ireland out half is looking forward to a trip to Edinburgh. 

STEPPING UP: Sam Prendergast of Ireland, left, and Marcus Smith of England. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Sam Prendergast just isn’t going to get ahead of himself.

It would be all too easy. It’s only four months since he was still auditioning for bigger roles with Emerging Ireland in South Africa. He was still, at the time, a man with a big future ahead of him. No-one thought the future could be now.

Even his debut off the bench against Argentina in November was seen as a stepping stone rather than one last lunge before reaching the summit. Since then he has started Ireland’s last four Test matches and the Six Nations is opening up before him.

Scotland in Murrayfield next Sunday will fall three days before his 22nd birthday. If everything seems to be sliding seamlessly into place then he was quick to post caution when asked about the prospect of testing himself with Finn Russell in Edinburgh.

“Ah, well, I need to see if I get picked first. We’ve a lot of good tens in our group. At the moment I’m just focused on that battle. I played against him a couple of weeks ago here for Bath and he was very good. He’s a very good player but I wouldn’t be thinking about that too much at the moment.” 

Prendergast is just as calm and collected off the pitch as on it. This isn’t just pretence or false modesty. He doesn’t hide his ambition to be the starting out-half for his club and country but he won’t be suckered into any sense of complacency.

His own display against England he described as “mixed”. Good in parts, not so much in others. You could boil that down to the two conversions he pulled on goal in the first-half and the difficult, long-range penalty he nailed before the break.

“I was happy with that kick, and] a couple of nice kicks to touch. There was a bit of free-flowing attack in the first-half and the second-half. Like, I thought we attacked well at times, we were just not as a clinical as we would have liked to be.

“A few kicks went array in the first-half, just went a bit long, weren’t contestable enough. Like, when you are playing at this level that is going to be punished.” 

It’s worth stressing again that this was his Six Nations debut but the impact made by Jack Crowley off the bench only reinforced the idea that the debate over this most pivotal of positions will remain live for some time to come.

Prendergast insists that the relationship is a healthy one and, while Ronan O’Gara and Johnny Sexton used to travel to kicking practices in silence in the same car, the Leinster player insists that those journeys are far more engaged these days.

“It’s quite healthy competition. Jack’s a great lad and a great player. I’ve seen how well he plays. I think we both just kind of work together.

“As much as people want to think we hate each other, we just work together. I think he’s playing very well at the moment as well and I thought that he played very well when he came on.”