{"id":534122,"date":"2026-07-05T11:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T11:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/534122\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T11:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T11:50:14","slug":"cian-prendergast-hails-brother-sams-match-winning-display-for-ireland-against-australia-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/534122\/","title":{"rendered":"Cian Prendergast hails brother Sam\u2019s match-winning display for Ireland against Australia \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cian Prendergast<\/a> hailed the courage of his younger brother Sam<\/a> for landing the match-winning conversion in Ireland<\/a>\u2019s thrilling 33-31 win<\/a> in their opening Nations Championship game against Australia in front of a captivated Saturday-night full house in Sydney\u2019s Allianz Stadium. <\/p>\n

Cian had been replaced and was on the sidelines when his younger brother nailed that decisive 78th-minute conversion of Thomas Clarkson\u2019s close-range try. Earlier, from a near identical angle 15m in from the left touchline, the Irish outhalf had perpetrated the only miss from his first four place-kicks, pulling the conversion to Josh van der Flier\u2019s 19th-minute try wide of the near upright.<\/p>\n

But with the match tied at 31-31, the younger Prendergast confidently struck the ball to bisect the posts. <\/p>\n

\"\"Reaction: Ireland squeeze home against Australia<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted for Sam to slot the kick,\u201d said his older brother. \u201cI thought he was brilliant and managed the game excellently in the second half in the right areas of the field. He kicked really well, and yeah, some set of stones on him to slot the kick at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

That match-winning kick added to the younger brother\u2019s redemptory end to the season. He lost both the starting outhalf jersey and his place in the squad with first Ireland for the final three Six Nations\u2019 game and then Leinster in their Champions Cup run-in, before returning to guide his province in the final three knock-out ties of their URC title defence. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he had a bit of a tough Six Nations and a tough kind of run until the end of the URC season, so I\u2019m really stoked for him with the way his season has turned around,\u201d said the older brother. \u201cHe was excellent against the Bulls and he was excellent in that run-in for Leinster. For him to kick that kick at the end, it just shows the character he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Sam Prendergast and Cian Prendergast celebrate after the match. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

This was only the second time the Prendergasts had started a rugby match of any kind together, and any pressure they may have felt can only have been intensified by the memory of the first, when Ireland were beaten 36-14 on Six Nations opening night in Paris last February.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time you play for Ireland, there\u2019s an element of pressure,\u201d said Cian. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to make it about ourselves when we both get picked together. It\u2019s about producing a performance for Ireland, and I\u2019m just delighted we got the result.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the game in Paris the last time we started together didn\u2019t go the way we wanted to, so it was it was brilliant to get the result there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their parents, Ciara and Mark, had been in the Stade de France that Thursday night and were memorably rewarded for deciding to travel to Australia at relatively short notice last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s class,\u201d said Cian. \u201cBoth my parents, they arrived in on a Thursday evening. We were chatting to them after [the match]. It was cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Cian Prendergast celebrates with his parents Ciara and Mark after the match. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

The Connacht captain, whose inclusion was reward for his storming form in the second half of their season as they secured a place in the URC playoffs and next season\u2019s Champions Cup, freely admitted Ireland had not been at their best, especially in that defensively porous first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a weird old game,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fairness, they were good in the first half. They were physical. It didn\u2019t feel like ourselves out there in the first half at times, but the bench made a huge impact, and the grit of the group. We dug out a win, so delighted with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expanding on Ireland not feeling like themselves, he said: \u201cJust defensively we felt like there was just a little bit more in it. Obviously we\u2019ll look back in the game and see what happened, but, look, there\u2019s definitely more in us, and that\u2019s the exciting thing as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately though, Ireland were rewarded for consistently turning down three points and kicking to the corner, with the younger Prendgast vindicating that decision every time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were brilliant. He was going for it in fairness,\u201d said Cian approvingly.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Sam Prendergast and Cian Prendergast celebrate after the match. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Backing up this approach, Ireland also scored two of their five tries from well-rehearsed tap penalties: van der Flier taking a good out-in line from Dan Sheehan\u2019s no-look pass for his 19th-minute try, and Clarkson quickly following up R\u00f3nan Kelleher\u2019s tap and charge for that 77th-minute try.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good plan we put in place,\u201d said the older Prednergast. \u201cTo score the try off the first one was nice. And then to do the same move and play out the back and score was nice as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presumably Paul O\u2019Connell tap plays?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think it\u2019s Paulie. Paulie tells us what\u2019s going on. I\u2019m not in the coaches meeting, but I think it\u2019s Paulie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the tap [play] on Monday and then we just had a couple of reps, but I think there\u2019s a huge emphasis on us pre- and post- training to work on those little combinations and connections like that. Obviously, Sheeno and Josh had worked on it together and you saw the result of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cian Prendergast hailed the courage of his younger brother Sam for landing the match-winning conversion in Ireland\u2019s thrilling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[986,128727,61,60,1449,86133,12918,112,53328],"class_list":["post-534122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-cian-prendergast","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-nations-championship","tag-sam-prendergast","tag-sports","tag-wallabies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534122","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=534122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}