Prendergast: How Ireland codded Wallaby cover for key test tries
OH BROTHER: Ireland's Sam and Cian Prendergast celebrate after Saturday's test win at Allianz Stadium in Sydney. Pic: Ben Brady, Inpho
Cian Prendergast says his younger brother Sam showed his cojones by calmly banging over the match-winner in Saturday’s engrossing Nations Championship win over the Wallabies in Sydney.
Loose-forward Cian scored Ireland’s opening points of the evening as he barged over from close range.
But it Sam who stole the show as the 23-year-old stepped up and landed his fourth conversion of the evening to hand Ireland a 33-31 lead.
It ultimately proved to be the match-winning strike as the Wallabies’ replacement playmaker Ben Donaldson missed a second late penalty.
“It was brilliant and obviously I'm delighted for Sam to slot the kick,” said Cian. “I thought he was brilliant and managed the game excellently in the second half in the right areas of the field.
“He kicked really well, and yeah, some set of stones on him to slot the kick at the end.”
Indeed. But it wasn’t just the playmaker’s ballsy kick.
Earlier, Prendergast was flattened by a bulldozing Rob Valetini and collected the bruising blindside flanker’s elbow in the head.
Prendergast quickly got to his feet and then showed his composure and skill by touching the ball on several occasions ahead of Jamison Gibson-Park’s try on the stroke of half-time.
His unbelievable torpedo kick also sailed over the impressive Jock Campbell and found touch deep inside the Wallabies’ half in the second half when Ireland was looking just a tad rugged.
The performance of the duo ensured it was a happier evening for the Prendergasts, who were playing for the first time since Ireland’s heavy 36-14 Six Nations defeat in Paris.
“I suppose like every time you play for Ireland, there's an element of pressure. We don't want to make it about ourselves when we both get picked together. It's about producing a performance for Ireland, and yeah, I'm just delighted we got the result,” he said.
“Obviously the game in Paris the last time we started together didn't go the way we wanted to, so it was it was brilliant to get the result there.”
Making the result all the more special was that the pair’s parents – Ciara and Mark – were also in the stands.
“It’s class. Both my parents, they arrived in on Thursday evening,” Prendergast said. “We were chatting to them after. It was cool.”
Making Ireland’s win all the more impressive was that they did so despite the lineout coming under serious pressure.
But some clever plays close to the Wallabies’ line, including the try to Cian on the 10-minute mark, proved telling.
As did the one to Josh van der Flier midway through the first-half as captain and hooker Dan Sheehan took a quick tap and threw an incredible ball to his flanker to barge over and score. Along the way, Sheehan drew in the entire Wallabies front-row before his no-look pass.
“To score the try off the first one was nice,” Prendergast said. And then to do the same move and play out the back and score was nice as well.”
Prendergast credited the clever tap play to forwards coach Paul O’Connell.
He added: “We got the tap on Monday and then we just had a couple of reps, but I think there's a huge emphasis on us pre- and post- training to work on those little combinations and connections like that,” he said. “Obviously, Sheeno and Josh had worked on it together and you saw the result of it.”
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