It’s still easy to forget that he’s only 21, albeit his 22nd birthday is on Wednesday, but exposed to yet another new test in the shape of a first international away from home, Sam Prendergast passed it seemingly in cruise control.
The young outhalf kept probing and kept the scoreboard ticking with a 12-point haul in his Man of the Match performance.
“He was good, wasn’t he?” said Simon Easterby with a smile and deliberate understatement.
“Playing in a different game away from home, he delivered not only in terms of mixing his game, attacking the line, his kicking game, but also off the tee, he was excellent.
“It allowed us to keep staying ahead and keep pushing out the scoreline, which on some other days it’s tighter than it needs to be but I thought Sam was excellent. He was good across his game, both in attack and defence.”
Ronan O’Gara called Prendergast “the master of control” at half-time on BBC, not that he especially felt that was the case.
“Not particularly, no,” said Prendergast laughing. “It’s a nice compliment from a very good player. Yeah, no, I didn’t feel particularly like that. I think me and the team were focusing on trying to build on what we were doing, get that momentum back.”
Prendergast found this display and win more enjoyable than against England.
“It’s more enjoyable because as a team we played better. Going away is never easy, especially here, the run they’ve been on. I thought it was pretty enjoyable today, yeah.”
While there was one blemish with his last conversion – one of his easier kicks on the day – Prendergast struck the ball sweetly in landing his previous five kicks,
“I felt pretty confident kicking in the warm up. I wanted to do better than I did last week, I was more used to the shot-clock, it was good.”
Being a young outhalf amid such an experienced group of players with a proven winning mentality is comforting.
“Exactly, I’m playing in one of the best teams in the world. When I look at the backs outside me, the help I get, there’s world class backs in that backline it’s a lot easier and in terms of the forwards, the go-forward they’re giving us – starters and bench – it’s unbelievable to be a part of.”
He could sense the composure in his team-mates.
“Especially in that game, we felt good in the first half. They got a few, not lucky breaks, but a few things went their way to get down our end and I think we did well to not concede tries off the back of it.
“That’s very good, if it’s two seven-pointers instead of two three-pointers, it’s a different game.”
Reflecting on the anthems beforehand, Prendergast said: “It was pretty cool, but I was trying to keep it out of my mind as much as possible.
“I knew we were kicking off so I’d to focus on that. It was pretty cool to experience it, I’d seen it on TV a few times before.
“It’s pretty cool, watching the games on TV yesterday and you remember watching them years ago and wanting to be part of it. It’s pretty cool to be part of it now. You’re trying not to think about it too much as well, trying to focus on the game and doing a job.”
His family were also in attendance for a post-match photo at pitch side.
“It was special, I knew they were coming over and it was cool to give them a hug after the game. It was a bit of a relief, pretty good.”
Ireland now go to Cardiff seeking a third Triple Crown in a row.
“Yeah, I hadn’t thought about that. The only experience I have of the Six Nations is Under-20s and it’s similar in terms of building game by game. Take each game as it comes, not focus on milestones but on getting better each week.
“Now we’ve a week, not off, but a week with no game so it going to be a good opportunity for us to learn and get better and bring that into the following week’s game.”
