Prendergast partnership pivotal to hat-trick hero Hansen

Steel sharpens steel, as saying goes, and that certainly seems to be the case in the battle for the Irish number 10 jersey.

Jack Crowley was forced to up his game after he lost his place to Sam Prendergast for this year’s 6 Nations, and the Munster man rose to the challenge in every way asked of him over recent months.

Now it is Prendergast who finds himself as the player with something to prove - and prove it he did on Saturday night in the Aviva Stadium as Ireland ran out 46-19 winners over Australia The Suncroft man was helped massively by having Mack Hansen on the field as a second playmaker, and the pair linked up superbly in the first half, perhaps creating a blueprint for Andy Farrell going forward.

Prendergast showed some deft handling under pressure to get the pass away for Hansen and Ireland’s opening try - and then repeated the trick just minutes later to send his full back in under the posts again.

Prendergast lost his inside centre partner, Stuart McCloskey, to injury after just 27 minutes, but immediately linked up with replacement, Bundee Aki, to help create Ireland’s third try as Hansen became the hat-trick hero.

The young fly half’s kicking was an eye-catching element of the game, and Ireland got plenty of purchase when he sent the ball high into the Dublin sky – most notably from that man Hansen.

As well as kicking two of his three shots from the tee, the Prendergst calmly slotted a magnificent drop goal midway through the second half when Ireland badly needed points to show for all their dominance in the third quarter.

That drop goal in front of a sold-out Aviva Stadium, he admitted after the game, is the first drop goal he has ever scored(!) and only the third he has ever attempted. What an occasion to do it.

Prendergast never shied away from his tackling duties by any means, but it remains an area of his game that needs improvement.

One man who has no problems with physicality in his game is Eadestown’s Tadhg Beirne.

The Munster captain openly admits that he prefers to play on the blindside – and it’s easy to see why, particularly on tour with the British and Irish Lions this summer – but he fulfills a very different role in the second row.

At blindside, Beirne is a force of nature - hitting rucks, winning turnovers and making big carries. At lock, however, he is asked to do the real nitty gritty, that – while essential – isn’t going to make any headlines. But those 13 tackles of his weren’t going to make themselves.

He certainly tried to put himself about in the Irish attack, but despite spending so much time as first and second receiver, Beirne never got the chance to carry much ball into that Australian defence.

The return of Joe McCarthy from injury will improve Ireland no end – and allow Beirne to express himself that much more in the back row.

Like Beirne at Munster, Connacht are also captained by a Kildare man. While his younger brother made the headlines, Cian Prendergast came on for the final 25 minutes and got through an ocean of work in that time.

For the second week in a row, the elder Prendergast added some much-needed energy to the Irish pack and has given himself a wonderful chance of making the bench again this weekend when the World-Champion Springboks come to town.

The Suncroft man proved his worth in the lineout against Japan, and while the 100% success of Ireland’s lineout against Australia was a welcome change from recent form, Paul O’Connell’s systems will be attacked by a completely different beast in the form of South Africa. Prendergast’s time to shine perhaps?