Sheehan: Prendergast nowstarting to lead Ireland like Sexton

Sam Prendergast, left, and Ciarán Frawley during the Ireland Rugby captain's run at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

In one of the biggest endorsements yet of Sam Prendergast, Ireland captain Dan Sheehan says the rising out-half reminds him of Johnny Sexton and has backed the playmaker to silence his critics in Saturday’s highly anticipated Nations Championship clash against the All Blacks at Eden Park.

After being one of the A-listers rested for last week’s 36-20 win over Japan, Prendergast’s return was pencilled in on Thursday as one of nine changes to take on the All Blacks as Andy Farrell seeks to end the rugby powerhouse’s 32-year winning run at the Garden of Eden.

Should Prendergast pull the strings and orchestrate the win, it’ll go some way to ending the endless debate about who should wear the No.10 jersey for next year’s World Cup.

Munster’s Jack Crowley will of course have something to say about that when he returns from injury, but given the All Blacks’ 51-Test unbeaten run at Eden Park, Saturday’s Test, which is being sold as an “opportunity” to write themselves into the history books, could prove to be a make-or-break moment for Prendergast almost 14 months out from the World Cup.

Club teammate and Ireland’s captain Sheehan issued a stirring statement on match eve, inferring that Prendergast was growing into the role and was starting to lead the side in the same manner that Johnny Sexton, who is a part of Farrell’s coaching team, did for years.

“Sam’s unbelievable,” Sheehan said, “How mentally strong he is off the back of a lot of attention and criticism.

“His preparation every week, he leads meetings, he chirps up for a young ten, he runs training sessions, he barks at people, reminds me of someone else (Sexton) in a lot of ways, and we all have Sam's back 100%, and Sam has his own back I think, which is the main thing, so Sam will be perfectly fine.” 

While most had already finished up their preparations on Friday and were putting their boots away, Prendergast was still in the middle of Eden Park banging over goals.

Standing alongside him was Sexton, who nodded in appreciation at the sight of seeing Prendergast crisply nail a kick from the western sideline. Nor did it simply scrape over here, with the ball flying through halfway up.

Prendergast’s accuracy out of hand and from the kicking tee will be vital for Ireland to stand a chance.

At a venue where Tests quickly get away from you, ticking over the scoreboard will be vital to keep the pressure on Dave Rennie’s new-look All Blacks.

Ireland has been limited to just 13 points in their past two defeats to the All Blacks as well, with linebreaks and scoring opportunities few and far between.

And if the opening two Nations Championship fixtures are anything to go by, Ireland will need to score points against the All Blacks, who beat France 34-32 before running away from Italy to win 47-17 in Wellington last week.

“The way most games are going, they're high-scoring games and they've been nail-biters to the end, so we need to make sure that we're on it for 80 minutes,” Sheehan said.

“I think the All Blacks have maybe been shaken for 20-minute periods here and there over the last few weeks, but they've got some serious power for 80 minutes, so we need to make sure we deliver an 80 minute performance and hopefully we're in it at the end.” 

As well as wanting to make history, Ireland are hoping the win is the springboard they need ahead of next year’s World Cup in Australia.

While Ireland knows more than most that success 12 months out from a World Cup is no guarantee of making a long run at the tournament, Sheehan said they were approaching the Test like a do-or-die game.

“We want the hardest conditions against the best teams and this is it,” he said.

“Obviously, we're trying to get ready for a World Cup like everyone else and to have the opportunity to play here against an in-form All Blacks team is exactly what we need. Test us against the best.

“If we were to shy away from these opportunities, we'd be in the wrong game. It's definitely a big window of our prep going into next year.” 

The fact that Dave Rennie has left Beauden Barrett out of his matchday squad for the third straight Test speaks of the depth and quality that the All Blacks have.

Rennie has thrown rising Hurricanes out-half Ruben Love into the pressure-cooker position, hoping to expose him to the rigours of international rugby after being on the periphery over the past two years under former coach Scott Robertson.

A running threat just like Barrett was a decade ago when he was the last playmaker to lead the Hurricanes to a Super Rugby title, Love has also benefited from having Damian McKenzie at fullback to take some of the pressure off him.

Sheehan said they would naturally go after Love but said they couldn’t afford to focus purely on the 25-year-old.

“We need to get after a lot of people, there's a long list of All Blacks that we need to get after,” he said.

“I think if we put our sole focus on Ruben, someone else will show up, so they've got a wide variety of talents there, so I think we need to stick together and make sure we've got all bases covered, rather than targeting individuals.” 

It’s not just Prendergast who needs to be pin-point accurate either, with Sheehan needing to be at his absolute best.

The hooker admitted that Ireland hadn’t been at their best throughout their opening two matches on tour despite chalking up wins, but added they were making progress.

“We saw improvements in all the campaigns we've had this year,” he said. “We probably had a slow start and built nicely through it. So hopefully we get the best we've seen this year tomorrow.” 

Asked how confident he was that the lineout issues that had plagued them recently had been ironed out, Sheehan shot back: “Very confident.” We won’t have to wait long to find out if that’s true.