OME TIME in November, Johnny Sexton appeared at a corporate speaking gig in Ireland with Bernard Jackman, the former Leinster and Ireland hooker. On stage, Jackman asked Sexton to name one player to watch very closely in the future, a player so under the radar that the room would most likely have never heard of him. Sexton didn’t need to go through all the Leinster academy tyros in his head before answering, didn’t need time to think of options. He came straight out with it, as quick as a flash. “Sam Prendergast,” he said of the then 19-and now 20-year-old fly-half. Unless guests had an intimate knowledge of Leinster schools rugby, they’d all have been asking, ‘Sam Who?’ Which was the whole point of Jackman’s question.
Jackman knew about the lad, though. Jackman had gone to Newbridge College and so had Prendergast. Not only that, Jackman had coached him in his final years in school.
From a rugby perspective, those years were interrupted by Covid. Newbridge made the final in Prendergast’s first year – he was
