![\"Vin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/002378da-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nThere are few players in Irish rugby are more talked about than Sam Prendergast, with his out-half duel with Munster rival Jack Crowley a hot topic for fans and pundits.<\/p>\n
Asked what he does to switch off the noise and chill out, Prendergast reveals he’s currently burning through the mind-numbing brainless car chases of the Fast & Furious series.<\/p>\n
Professional rugby is intense and it’s important to tune out.<\/p>\n
Few films require less thinking than the adventures of Vin Diesel and co, a franchise with nine sequels since the original was released in 2001.<\/p>\n
“What was the last game I started, Munster?” he wonders aloud when asked what he does to relax.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I’ve actually been watching Fast & Furious, watching all those from the start. I started watching them on the way to South Africa [for Leinster\u2019s opening URC games].<\/p>\n
“So that’s actually what I’ve been ploughing through. I think I’m on Fast and Furious 7 now, so I’m getting through them at a rate of knots.<\/p>\n
“So that’s what I’ve been doing to relax, yeah.”<\/p>\n
Since bursting onto the scene and making his full international debut 12 months ago, Prendergast has largely held the whip hand in the battle for the out-half jersey.<\/p>\n
He started four of the five Six Nations games but was usurped by the Crowley for Ireland\u2019s last three matches, against Portugal, New Zealand and Japan.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old is in line to start against Australia this weekend with Andy Farrell set to name his team at 2pm today.<\/p>\n
![\"18](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/00235db0-614.jpg\"\/)
\nJack Crowley (l) and Sam Prendergast shake hands following Munster’s win over Leinster<\/p>\n
The Prendergast versus Crowley debate is not going anywhere so the duo might as well get used to it.<\/p>\n
Both are working towards the same goal and Prendergast, who has 11 caps, says it’s best not to get let the debate overshadow his primary goal of helping Ireland win.<\/p>\n
He said: “If either of us are getting bogged down by the rotation over the last year, I suppose it’s selfish.<\/p>\n
“We’d both say that we’re being selfish. I think we both agree that it’s important we both stay positive and both just try to contribute to the team as best as we can.<\/p>\n
“Like I thought Jack has played very well the first two games and he started the season really well as well.<\/p>\n
“We both get along very well and we both kind of share the same ambitions, so it’s not that hard to get on.<\/p>\n
“I suppose it is [important to have an edge], but if you’re getting bogged down by it, it is impacting your day-to-day, and impacting your day-to-day is probably stopping you from getting better as a player.”<\/p>\n
![\"8](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/002378d7-614.jpg\"\/)
\nJohnny Sexton (l) and Sam Prendergast before the Japan game<\/p>\n
Prendergast is now working full-time with former Ireland out-half Johnny Sexton, who joined the IRFU as an assistant last year but was away with the British and Irish Lions during the summer.<\/p>\n
“I’d say probably his strength was how quickly he picked up things and I think it’s quite cool to see how he… has probably changed a lot,” said Prendergast of the former Leinster back, World Rugby Player of the Year in 2018.<\/p>\n
“I never got to really experience him as a player, but I’d say he changed a lot from being a player to a coach in terms of how he maybe messages things.<\/p>\n
“But I have found it incredibly beneficial.<\/p>\n
“I think all of us tend to agree from a kicking point of view, from attack, defense, even just from a mental point of view, I think he’s probably one of the best to ever do it.<\/p>\n
“So it’s just looking for his opinion on things and the way he goes about things, but also his openness to learn as well, because he’s probably thinking he needs to learn as a new coach, and I think that openness he has is quite refreshing and it’s good to learn off.”<\/p>\n
Prendergast, who has made 37 Leinster appearances, came on as a replacement against Japan<\/a>, kicked two conversions and set up Tommy O\u2019Brien\u2019s late try with a switch pass.<\/p>\n He ran on at Aviva Stadium alongside brother Cian, the Connacht captain who plays in the back row.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time the pair have played together but, says Sam, it\u2019s always a special feeling.<\/p>\n “The coolest part about it is after the game because it’s really hard to think about it when you’re in the lead up to a game, because one, you don’t know when you’re going to come on,” he said.<\/p>\n “If you’re going to come on together, are you going to play together.<\/p>\n “And two, I’d say he’d agree with me that if you think about it too much, it can become a distraction that you probably don’t need.<\/p>\n “Then after the final whistle goes, you’re like, oh, that was pretty cool, and you go up and see how happy it’s made your family.<\/p>\n “We had a nice dinner after. That’s the benefit of the early kick off that we actually got to spend some time together as a family and it was, it was a pretty special 24 hours.”<\/p>\n Listen to the RT\u00c9 Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n Watch Ireland v Australia in the Quilter Nations Series on Saturday from 7pm on RT\u00c92 and the RT\u00c9 Player. Follow a live blog on the RT\u00c9 News App and on rte.ie\/sport. Listen to live commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are few players in Irish rugby are more talked about than Sam Prendergast, with his out-half duel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-137204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"8](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/002378d8-614.jpg\"\/)
\nCian (l) and Sam Prendergast in action against Japan<\/p>\n