Jamie Osborne has hailed match-winner Sam Prendergast’s unflappable temperament after he kept Ireland on course to make Guinness Six Nations history. A title hat-trick, which has never previously been achieved, and the Grand Slam will be guaranteed if Ireland win their remaining games against France and Italy in March.
It was 22-year-old Prendergast who navigated them safely through choppy waters in Cardiff, nervelessly kicking three penalties during the final 13 minutes of a gripping Triple Crown-clinching encounter.
Full-back Osborne’s try hauled Ireland level before Prendergast took centre-stage and dashed Wales’ hopes of ripping up the form-book by beating a team 10 places above them in World Rugby’s official rankings.
“He has got such a calm head on his shoulders,” Osborne said about his Leinster and Ireland teammate. “Mentally, he doesn’t really get fazed by anything, and he is the perfect man to lead the team in those situations. He has always been really calm. He is an unbelievable player.”
Prendergast delivered priceless goods just three months into his Test career, and Ireland knew they had experienced a monumental scare against opponents without a Test win since October 2023.
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Osborne added: “It was incredibly tough, but we expected that coming here. Wales were fantastic, and I look forward to seeing what they do for the rest of the tournament. We are delighted, obviously, but probably there is a bit of relief as well.
“We made a few errors in the first half, myself included, and we spoke about just fixing the inaccuracies in the second half.”
Attention will quickly turn to France’s Aviva Stadium visit on March 8, when captain Caelan Doris could be back in the mix after missing the Wales game because of a knee injury.
France have only won once in Dublin since 2011, and while Ireland start as favourites, they will require a considerable improvement on what they produced at the Principality Stadium.
Ireland flanker Josh van der Flier said: “We had to work hard for it. It was a very tough game. In fairness to Wales, they were very impressive. We spoke about it during the week that we expected a really good performance from them. They are a very proud nation.
“It was a really tough battle, and thankfully we did enough to get the win. I am very proud of the lads to be able to pull it out, and to get the Triple Crown is very special.
“It was very calm at half-time. The coaches made a plan of how we were going to defend, because obviously we were down a man (following Garry Ringrose’s 20-minute red card), which changed a few things.
“After that, it was just talking about dealing with the first 10-15 minutes of the second half. There was no panic at all, and thankfully that helped us get over the line. It was far from perfect, but that is the nature of Six Nations rugby, really. We will review it, and then we will be all go for France.”
