“He is an impressive young player, that’s for certain.”
Ronan O’Gara has praised Sam Prendergast and admitted that he didn’t fully understand the ‘buzz’ around the player until he got to see him up close.
Sunday saw Leinster’s Prendergast undertake his biggest task to date in a Leinster jersey.
While not his best game in blue, particularly in the first half, he was relatively solid and crucially kicked all his points in a 16-14 win away to Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle.
With the race for the Ireland No 10 jersey heating up, it was important for the 21-year-old not to crumble in the cauldron of the Stade Marcel-Deflandre, given Jack Crowley’s performance in Munster’s win over Saracens on Saturday.
There are few in the game better placed than Irish legend O’Gara to judge the merits of an out-half.
And while he said that at first, he did not get the hype around Prendergast, he has come around and admitted that while his side targeted him, it was the young man who came out on top.
O’Gara said: “He is an impressive young player, that’s for certain, and probably, as I said previously, I thought there was probably a buzz about him that wasn’t necessary.
“But after what I saw in Bristol, he merits all that and he deserves all that. On Sunday, I don’t think he missed a kick, did he? None of them were easy. And managed the game well.
“He has a huge future. You just have to go after a 21-year-old because he is 21, you know?’
“When I was 21 and playing in that position, what you feel as a 21-year-old, it’s not easy. So, he won that game tonight in terms of against me because I didn’t get much change out of him.”
