Sam Prendergast might have left his kicking boots at home last weekend against Glasgow in the United Rugby Championship semi-final, but Leinster are fully behind their young outhalf, who coach Tyler Bleyendaal called one of the game drivers within the squad.
“I actually thought Sam on the weekend played a good match,” said Bleyendaal. “His goal-kicking maybe was one skill error but the way he led the team around, I thought, was great. The stats showed that we played well, and we applied a lot of pressure and I think a lot of that is from Sam’s leadership on the field.
“He has been engaged and he’s looking to get a plan in place along with the other game drivers.”
The New Zealander was himself an outhalf and captained New Zealand Under-20 to victory in the 2010 IRB Junior World Championship before being forced out of playing with Munster due to a recurring neck injury. He subsequently qualified for Ireland in January 2018 under World Rugby’s residence rules but didn’t play.
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There are some similarities including pressure management at a young age.
“Yeah, any of my own experiences is something I can draw on because I’ve been through them,” said Bleyendaal. “Even some of the things that haven’t gone well for me, you can share those experiences, but it doesn’t mean that Sam operates in the same way.
“So, he’s going to go about his business. It’s getting his game and leadership style aligned with the plan we want to go forward with. On the most part, he’s doing a pretty good job.”
Prendergast will have played at least 25 games this season, which is higher than many of the international players. Still changing physically, his 6’ 5’’ frame has yet to fully fill and in many ways is still growing into the game. His critics though have been out, even after beating Glasgow in the URC semi-final last weekend.
“I don’t think there’s any ill effects. I think he’s getting through the season fine. I don’t look at him and think he’s getting beaten up or he’s slowing down,” said Bleyendaal. “I feel like he turns up every week, he’s got good energy and he’s young, I think he recovers well. The pleasing thing to see is that he puts in the work during the week and he goes out and backs himself on the weekend.
“Jeez, being a kicker myself and sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes you have a rubbish warm-up, a great game. Sometimes you have a great warm-up, a rubbish game. But he was back to work today kicking a lot of balls.”
Prop Tadhg Furlong, centre Garry Ringrose and fullback Hugo Keenan will all be assessed for calf injuries this week and have not yet been ruled out of the URC final against the Bulls in Croke Park on Saturday. Irish flanker Josh van der Flier will also be assessed on his hamstring injury. Irish captain Caelan Doris and Robbie Henshaw are unavailable for the game.
Ticket sales for the game were trending towards 30,000 after the first day.
