'He's a big boy, he's got a toughness about him': Rassie Erasmus on Sam Prendergast

South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus. Pic: Bryan Keane/Inpho

This week, Rassie Erasmus insists, is not about him. Not true. It may be about the Springboks and Ireland and everything that happens on the park come tea-time on Saturday in Ballsbridge, but Erasmus is always an intriguing subplot.

His former incarnation as Munster boss makes him a person of considerable interest on these shores. His admission here that he would be open to old sidekick and current Leinster defence coach Jacques Nienaber returning for the 2027 World Cup only heightens that.

He has never won as a coach in Dublin. There was a PRO12 final loss to Scarlets, a Champions Cup defeat to Saracens and a 2022 visit with the Boks that ended with a three-point defeat. His only win here was a 27-13 success as a player against Ireland in 1998.

Even the stadium has changed since.

That record is a needle. He admitted as much in a faux-blasé sort of way but knows that hunger exists on both sides with the home support seeing his lot as the “next red meat” on offer after the gorging on soccer successes against Portugal and Hungary.

But the focus will shift, inevitably.

Players will always take centre stage eventually and two of the leading actors this weekend will be the men wearing the No.10 jerseys only a couple of years after lining out on opposite sides at the World Rugby U20 Championship.

Sam Prendergast’s eye-catching efforts with ball in hand, and with the boot, against the Wallabies last week has earned him the nod at out-half for Ireland, despite the qualms of those who worry how his defensive abilities will stand up to the world champions.

Andy Farrell betrayed a simmering anger at the constant focus on this side of the young playmaker’s game at his team announcement later in the day, after Erasmus had waxed lyrical about the Kildare man a few miles down the road.

“For me, he is a big fellow. It looks like he always wants the ball in his hands, and he's got guts. I saw the kick he kicked last weekend, when he found [Australia’s Max] Jorgensen back napping there, at the back.

Sam Prendergast has been criticised for his defensive capabilities. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho

“People are talking about his tackling, that there's maybe a weakness there, but I've seen him go really hard, and he's a big boy, and he looks pretty fit. I read a bit about his background. He's got a toughness about him, so let's hope and see how Sacha does against him.” Sacha being Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, of course.

The 23-year old Stormers ten is clearly the man who Erasmus believes will pilot this Bok side towards its World Cup threepeat bid in Australia in 2027. His talent is as obvious as it is outrageous and he is being given the room to grow.

Manie Libbok and Handré Pollard got the nod to kick off the first three Rugby Championship games this year but it is the younger candidate who has been handed the reins for six out of the last seven games now.

Pollard is nursing an Achilles problem that ruled him out this week but Erasmus was open in admitting that Feinberg-Mngomezulu was pencilled in anyway. Now is his time, and the future will probably belong to him too.

It’s still less than 18 months since he made his debut and Erasmus described a player who, at first, was confident but struggled to fully express himself in case he “buggered up” the game plan. He has matured since.

“You know with Johnny [Sexton], he played until he was 38, so Handré knows there is another World Cup in him and I think he understands that we want to learn lessons from Sacha. Playing in France, under pressure, that is a different thing, playing on Saturday with ‘Zombie’ playing, that is a different pressure.

“So I guess going from a level to another, we try and keep the combination pretty tight and they are also the Stormers pairing now. Having nice security on the bench with Morne and Grant and Handre and guys like Damian who can go to ten.

“I don’t know if you have a word in English like the snotklap, but it is like a slap in the face somewhere and makes you think, ‘oh, this is a different level’, and that is going to happen at some point to him.

“Then he must handle that and we must still try to get him through all the different stages of intensity.”