'It's selfish' - Sam Prendergast believes himself and Jack Crowley shouldn't focus on Ireland rotation

STAY POSITIVE: Sam Prendergast on media duty. Pic: ©INPHO/Nick Elliott

For all the social media outcry which dominated the start of the battle for Ireland’s number 10 jersey between Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast, the latter has revealed the players themselves have committed to staying positive over their current selection rotation.

Head coach Andy Farrell will on Thursday afternoon reveal his latest pick for the starting fly-half role ahead of Saturday’s Quilter Nations Series Test at home to Australia with Crowley having started the first two November internationals, the loss against New Zealand and most recently the win over Japan, and Prendergast coming off the bench on each occasion.

The rivals alternated on tour with Ireland during the summer, Leinster’s 22-year-old having started against Georgia with Munster’s Crowley in reserve, while the 25-year-old played 80 minutes against Portugal a week later, with Ciaran Frawley named as back-up but deployed elsewhere by interim head coach Paul O’Connell.

For Prendergast, who faced the media in Abbotstown earlier this week, maintaining positivity is key for both players to thrive and for the good of the team, considering anything else to be selfish, in his words.

“If either of us are getting bogged down by the rotation over the last year, I suppose it's selfish, as in we'd both say that would be we're being selfish,” Prendergast said. “I think we both agree that it's important we both stay positive and both just try to contribute to the team as best as we can.

“Like I thought Jack has played very well the first two games and he started the season really well as well. We both get along very well and we both kind of share the same ambitions, so it's not that hard to get on.

“I think if either of us are getting bogged down about that kind of rotation, it's quite a selfish thing to do.”

In a position within the team that requires leadership and a strong mind, selfishness may be encouraged but, as Prendergast sees it, only in a certain way.

When it was suggested to him that it was important to be selfish to find the required edge in a game, he replied: “Yeah, I suppose it is, but in terms of if you're getting bogged down by it, it is impacting your day-to-day, and impacting your day-to-day is probably stopping you from getting better as a player, so that's what I'd probably answer to that one.

“Like you always want to start and I think there's probably five or six fly-halves in Ireland who want to start those games and yeah, it can be frustrating, but it's just about not letting it eat you up because all you can really do is stay positive, try to improve every day and if you keep doing that, then you hope the big picture things take care of themselves.”

Prendergast delivered a mixed assessment of his contributions off the bench so far this month, disappointment in keeping with the prevailing mood following the Chicago defeat to New Zealand on November 1 but much happier with the return home and a strong finish against Japan seven days later.

As a replacement at Aviva Stadium last Saturday, he was part of a bench deployment which delivered a shift in gear to get the job done as the Japanese tired, three final-quarter tries securing a 41-10 victory. His analysis of the win tallied with a big picture view of starters and finishers making equally significant impacts.

“It's always good fun coming back into the camp,” he said.

“The couple of weeks we spent over in Chicago were good, it was just disappointing as a team we couldn't get the performance. The prep had given us a chance to put a good performance in and we just didn't get that performance, but you can't get too bogged down with that.

“And then last week, it was a good week, it was a tough game, they made it very tough and I think we did a lot of hard work in the first half that maybe we were a pass or an error away from scoring, but that hard work paid off in the second half.

“There was a lot of ball in play in that first half that allowed the game to open up a bit in the second half.

“Personally, probably a bit disappointed with the first game coming off the bench, you never really want to make a couple of errors, it's tough to get into the game then and against a quality side like that, it just gives them field position and allows them to play with the ball they want, turnover ball.

“And then last week, happy enough, a lot of the work in the first half was very good from the lads in terms of kind wearing down the Japanese and it allowed for the game to be a bit more open, which probably made life easier for us substitutions.”