SAM PRENDERGAST’S place in the Leinster pecking order is irrelevant when it comes to Ireland.
That is the view of Mike Catt, who signs off as Ireland’s attack coach after the summer Tour of South Africa.
Prendergast is one of three uncapped players chosen by Andy Farrell in the 35-man squad and — along with Jack Crowley and Ciarán Frawley — is one of three out-halves.
The 20-year-old was chosen ahead of, among others, the Byrne brothers, Ross and Harry, both of whom line out more regularly at No 10 for their province.
Asked about the discrepancy, Catt said: “You’ll have to ask Leinster that really but they’ve got four outside halves there and they’ve got to manage it.
“There’s been a World Cup as well, there’s been injuries as well so they’ve had to manage it but going forward that’s something obviously that Leo Cullen and the Leinster guys, and Faz, I suppose, need to sit down and discuss.
“It’s just what it is at the moment and we don’t dwell on that, we’ll just go, ‘Right, this is what we want and this is where we will go’.
“I think that Sam’s ceiling is very high, he is very confident. He runs the week very, very well.
“I think he’s got a very, very high skill set. He’s got a great torpedo as well, a spiral which is very old school, I love a spiral, that’s why he’s picked.
“He can learn a lot from this environment. Going forward he deserves an opportunity. That is what we have gone with.
“This will accelerate his development hugely, when you are surrounded by the best of the best all the time.
“You won’t have an opportunity to play with a Bundee Aki or those guys around him normally, it is making sure that he sucks up all the atmosphere and the intelligence from the players around him and understands what it is all about.”
It has echoes of Farrell’s fast-tracking of Jamison Gibson-Park after he succeeded Joe Schmidt following the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Luke McGrath had been part of the Ireland squad for that tournament and was Leinster’s first-choice scrum-half but the New Zealander was quickly integrated by Farrell, dislodged his rival at the province and has since established himself as one of the best No 9s in the world.
He is absent through injury for this Tour with veteran Conor Murray, his Munster team-mate Craig Casey and Caolin Blade Farrell’s options there.
But, despite the importance of Gibson-Park to how Ireland play, Catt said: “These guys have been around camp for the past three, four years or 12 or 15 years whatever Murr has been around.
“It’s not going to change anything in terms of how we do things, it just gives those other guys an opportunity again to cement their place going forward.”
CATT-ISFACTION
Catt takes some satisfaction that the two other uncapped players, Leinster’s Jamie Osborne and Ulster’s Cormac Izuchukwu, were on the Emerging Ireland Tour to South Africa in September 2022.
Other more established players such as Blade, Calvin Nash and Joe McCarthy also travelled on a Tour which was not popular with the provinces as it took players away outside a Test window.
He said: “The nice thing is that they are all really there on merit. It’s great to see two of three that have come in from the Emerging team which everybody poo-pooed at the time. We have four or five of those players who have come through now, and I thought it was good.”
They might be travelling primarily to gain experience of being within the camp but Catt added: “Stranger things have happened in Tour in Test weeks where people get opportunities and stuff.
“It’s another opportunity for them to try and find their potential.
“You have to be realistic with it ultimately but if someone drops down, someone gets injured or in some cases if two people get injured in the same position, they have got to be ready.
“That is our job to make sure that these guys are ready.”
That, in part, explains why Ireland will travel with 35 players for only two games.
There will also be an enlarged coaching staff too with Andrew Goodman part of the set-up as he gears up to replace Catt who steps down from his role after this tour.
Catt said: “It’s brilliant. He’s a good man, he fits in.
“The players know him as well, it’s brilliant he can come in and see how it works, take a backwards step and say, ‘OK, this is what they do and why and this is what I’d do different’. It’s a good decision from Faz.”
Between them all, they will hope to mastermind a third straight win over South Africa. Ireland recorded a commanding home victory in 2017 and edged a thriller in a World Cup pool game last autumn.
Damien de Allende has said the Springboks felt disrespected after their Dublin loss with Eben Etzebeth accusing them of arrogance in Paris by telling their opponents ‘see you in the final’ — only to lose at the quarter-final stage as Rassie Erasmus’ side successfully defended their crown.
But Catt said: “It’s great for the game and great for the hype and you guys love it and everybody loves that but from our point of view it’s business as usual. You can’t dwell on all those things. You don’t use it.
“We know what we need to do to go to South Africa and try and win a series. That’s all it is. All the white noise on the side of it doesn’t even come into it.”
Nor, he claimed, will the altitude issue in the first Test in Pretoria.
He said: “What did Glasgow do? Don’t make something that’s not. If you dwell on something, people are going to get worried by it.
“Whenever you put on an Irish shirt, whoever you are playing, it is hard, it’s tough, you have got to take yourself to a dark side.”