WHILE THERE WERE tears in the eyes of Gus McCarthy as the hooker looked up into the stand during Ireland’s anthems, his fellow 21-year-old Sam Prendergast kept his gaze down towards the ground throughout.

The out-half was alongside his older brother, Cian, and one can only imagine the strength of feeling in those moments.

It seemed as though Prendergast was keen to keep a lid on the emotions and get to kick-off for his first start in Ireland’s number 10 shirt.

The Kildare man nailed his first big involvement in the game, landing his second penalty line kick 6.5 metres out from the Fijian tryline.

Prendergast takes his time over the kick, determined to earn Ireland a lineout as close to the Fijian tryline as possible.

It’s safer to be less ambitious in these instances but the difference of a few metres is important. Because Ireland are left so close to the Fijian line, the visitors have to seriously worry about the maul threat.

The attack Ireland produce from the lineout feeds off that threat as they dummy to maul but instead break around the back with hooker McCarthy sending Caelan Doris into space for their opening try. The line kick from Prendergast certainly helped.

It’s a good start for Prendergast, who soon has his first defensive involvement.

Prendergast closes up from the backfield, where he has been covering kick space, to tackle wing Jiuta Wainiqolo as Fiji move the ball to the edge.

Out-halves tend to spend lots of time in the backfield, holding or dropping there after kicks rather than working into the frontline defence. It means they have to be alert to the need to ‘close the gate’ like this, with the other backfield defender – Jamie Osborne [yellow above] in this instance – simultaneously shifting across to cover behind them.

Prendergast completes the tackle on his inside shoulder.

But less than a minute later, just as Fiji’s attack comes to an end, Prendergast errs after closing up for a second time.

Kitione Salawa threatens the outside shoulder of Jacob Stockdale, hitching beyond him before the Ireland wing recovers to grab his jersey.

But Prendergast has already closed up, worried about Salawa breaking, and the Fiji flanker decides to dink a kick in behind Prendergast. It slices into touch but then comes the head contact from Prendergast on Salawa.

It all happens quickly but it seems that Prendergast hopes to impede Salawa from chasing his kick. The Irish out-half can’t know that Stockdale will get Salawa to ground or that the kick will go into touch so as Prendergast turns, there’s an obvious incentive to be in Salawa’s way.

However, Prendergast clearly gets it wrong and there is direct contact from his shoulder to Salawa’s jaw.

Referee Hollie Davidson decides the yellow-card threshold has been met and the incident goes to foul play review officer Andrew McMenemy in the bunker.

It’s McMenemy’s job to use World Rugby’s ‘head contact process’ to decide whether the yellow card should be upgraded to a 20-minute red card.

So in this case, head contact has occurred and there has been foul play because Prendergast’s reckless actions mean he is at fault, so the key question is the degree of danger involved.

World Rugby encourage officials to consider things like direct versus indirect contact, ‘high force versus low force’ and whether the foul play is dynamic.

In this instance, McMenemy feels that the degree of danger is not high so the card should not be upgraded. It takes nearly seven minutes for this decision to be reached, with McMenemy assessing every possible angle.

With that same time to reflect now, it seems like a justifiable call from McMenemy. It’s not a low-force connection from Prendergast but it’s not of the kind of high force we might see in a front-on tackle where the tackler is dynamically driving into a ball carrier.

It might be closer to high-force than low-force and Ireland probably wouldn’t have complained had it been red, but a yellow seems fair. There is no need for McMenemy to consider mitigation because he cannot downgrade the original yellow-card decision.

“The yellow card will remain a yellow card, not a high degree of danger,” Davidson tells the captains once she’s been informed.

“What?” exclaims Fiji’s Tevita Ikanivere as Prendergast has a wry smile.

Having surely feared his first start was over after just seven minutes, Prendergast’s task is to get his head back in the game before returning.

Making a positive contribution as soon as possible would have been his immediate goal and his first act is a good restart.

It’s a towering kick that Fiji can’t gather and Mack Hansen claims the scraps, launching Ireland instantly into an attack that ends with Eroni Mawi being shown a yellow card.

Restarts are a key part of the game for every team so nailing this underappreciated element of the game is important.

However, straight after Mawi’s yellow, there’s a setback for Prendergast.

He goes right for the corner again with the penalty but assistant referee Matthew Carley calls it touch-in-goal.

Ireland boss Andy Farrell felt it was a “harsh” call and interestingly, the smart ball data provided by Sage during games says that Prendergast’s kick went into touch 0.9 metres out from the Fijian tryline.

But Carley’s is the view that matters and he is right at the corner flag, from where he informs Davidson that the kick has gone touch-in-goal, so Fiji get a relieving 22-metre drop-out.

90 seconds later, there’s another error from Prendergast as his spiral kick down the left flies straight into touch.

The kick is obviously not what Prendergast was aiming for but the main issue for Ireland here is how they lose their way in attack before he kicks.

They receive the 22m drop-out and play through two phases before confusion descends.

Ireland are renowned for their clever set-piece plays after receiving opposition restarts and in this instance, fullback Osborne [yellow below] looks as if he’s setting up to run a strike line close to the ruck.

Prendergast also appears set to swing to the right initially but as we see below, scrum-half Craig Casey comes to the left at first before turning back to pass to Prendergast.

Casey instantly throws his arms out in frustration after passing, seemingly unhappy about the lack of clarity around him.

Osborne’s frustration is also evident as he throws his arms out at Ireland’s plan falling apart.

We don’t know what Ireland had hoped to do here but the disconnect means Prendergast has to react and he goes for a spectacular spiral down the left, putting too much on the kick.

There were a couple more instances like this from Ireland yesterday where they appeared to lose their way but that’s not altogether unexpected given the changes they had made and the inexperience of some of the players.

Fiji get a lineout in Ireland’s half and it caps a tough opening quarter for Prendergast with the yellow card, his second line kick, and this kick out on the full.

His next involvements are positive as he stands and passes under pressure from the onrushing Wainiqolo to get the ball into space soon before Cormac Izuchukwu’s non-try.

Prendergast’s ability to get the ball away means Bundee Aki can kick-start a chain of Irish offloads before they sweep back to the left, where Prendergast plays the ball out the back but Mack Hansen’s final pass to Izuchukwu is deemed to be forward.

The Ireland out-half is soon called on to make his second tackle of the game after Fiji steal an Irish lineout.

Prendergast drops in low to bring Wainiqolo to ground.

Prendergast only had to complete five tackles in this game but given that defence is something he says he has been working hard on and needs to continue to improve, he’ll be happy enough with his efforts.

But there’s no doubt that Prendergast truly comes alive when his teams have the ball.

He gets excited by the challenge of picking out space and throwing passes, short and long.

With lots of space wide on the left in the instance above on kick return, Prendergast throws the long skip pass to Robbie Henshaw.

40 seconds later, we see a different type of pass from Prendergast to open up Fiji’s defence.

The out-half [red below] is set up in the boot behind a pod of three forwards [blue].

Tadhg Beirne does an excellent job of running square at the defensive line, threatening to carry or tip-on a pass to Andrew Porter short on his left before swivelling late to sweep the ball out the back to Prendergast.

Beirne truly engages the defence and that causes strife for prop Haereiti Hetet [pink below] who bites in towards Porter, taking himself out of the game and leaving those outside him in big trouble.

So as Prendergast begins to turn the corner, straightening up his run, he can draw Fiji number eight Elia Canakaivata [dark green below], who has had to follow Hetet in.

Prendergast has a pod of two forwards outside him [purple] and Henshaw [black] out the back.

With Fiji outside centre Waisea Nayacalevu not biting in with Canakaivata and instead worrying about Henshaw out the back, Prendergast makes a good decision to play a flat pass to Josh van der Flier on the outside of the 2-pod and he breaks upfield.

Ireland are in behind and have a good chance of scoring but Prendergast is unable to get his pass away on the next phase.

The opportunity is clear but Wainiqolo manages to make a try-saving knock-on in his tackle on Prendergast.

Wainiqolo is closing quickly here in a crucial bit of defensive play but Prendergast will wonder if he could have thrown his pass a hint earlier to get it into Stockdale’s hands for a 2-on-1 with Aki outside.

Caleb Muntz is corner-flagging but Aki has serious power. Still, Ireland keep the pressure on from the ensuing scrum and soon have their third try through Casey, with Prendergast providing the touchline conversion.

The introduction of Ciarán Frawley at fullback for the injured Osborne soon before Casey’s try meant Ireland had two out-halves on the pitch and it made for interesting viewing in attack.

Frawley and Prendergast connected well within Ireland’s shape on a few occasions, including this example in the 36th minute.

Frawley [red] is in the boot behind the 3-pod [blue], while Prendergast [black] is moving to swing out the back of the 2-pod [yellow].

Beirne plays another excellent sweep pass after engaging the defence, finding Frawley out the back.

And with Fiji making a similar defensive error again as they bite in aggressively from outside, Frawley calmly plays the ball out the back of the 2-pod to Prendergast.

With the Fijian defence in disarray, Prendergast now has lots of time on the ball to assess the situation. He has Doris and van der Flier outside him, with Ireland having fallen into 1-3-2-2 shape.

Prendergast makes a good decision as he recognises that Nayacalevu [red below] is turning in, worried about a short pass to Doris, while Fiji wing Ponepati Loganimasi [yellow] is still turned out, concerned about Aki out wide.

So as he straightens up to fix Fiji lock Mesake Vocevoce in front of him, Prendergast fires a lovely pass across the face of Nayacalevu to van der Flier running into space.

Unfortunately for Ireland, van der Flier’s pass to Aki over the top of Loganimasi is inaccurate and the chance comes to nothing.

Even accounting for the poor defence from Fiji and the time Prendergast has on the ball here, it shows his ability to pick good options. He and Ireland will be well aware that the Fijian defence gave him many opportunities that better teams simply won’t.

His next duties are to show poise in the backfield, first side-stepping the onrushing Josua Tuisova before launching a big spiral from his own 22 up towards the Fijian 22, then stepping around fullback Vuate Karawalevu after fielding the return kick.

Those positive contributions help to get Ireland on the attack again and Prendergast is soon running a loop around Frawley as they connect again.

It’s excellent work from Frawley as he delays his return pass, waits for Nayacalevu to bite down onto Henshaw running the short front-door option, then releases the ball out the back just before Mawi monsters him in the tackle.

Frawley bravely ships a huge hit but it gives Prendergast time and space to turn the corner, draw in Karawalevu, and release Aki.

There are a couple more nice passes from the Irish out-half before the break, including another skip pass that invites Henshaw to challenge the edge of Fiji’s defence, as well as this snappy touch after a lineout turnover.

This example shows how Prendergast often manages to avoid getting smashed when it looks like he might just after passing. Even as he’s getting the ball across his body to pass, Prendergast is stepping downfield away from the advancing Tuisova.

Prendergast certainly has some tough moments in contact ahead of him in his career given the position he plays, but the 21-year-old appears to have a streak of self-preservation built in even while looking to engage defenders.

The first half concluded with Prendergast delivering a calm cross-field kick to Hansen for Ireland’s fourth try. It’s a left-hand-side scrum for Ireland and the pass from Casey from the base is superb, the speed of the ball giving the Irish attack an instant impetus. 

With Henshaw running another threatening short line off Aki, Prendergast times his run well as he swings out the back with Stockdale before kicking wide to Hansen.

Prendergast’s depth is ideal in that he gives himself enough space to kick but he’s not so deep as to offer an obvious cue for the defence that he might kick.

The Irish out-half begins to drop the ball to his foot almost immediately upon receiving Aki’s accurate pass out the back, again meaning Fiji have no time to react.

Because Stockdale is swinging with Prendergast, Loganimasi has to stay tight and with Frawley running a flat line outside Prendergast, Fiji fullback Karawalevu also feels the need to bite in. As Prendergast instead kicks, Karawalevu slips on the turn.

It’s a pleasing end to the first half for Prendergast, with his conversion going in off the left upright.

Ireland’s phase-play attack continues to flow impressively upon the restart and another classy pass from Prendergast helps to create a try-scoring chance in the 42nd minute.

Prendergast fizzes a flat double skip pass across the face of edge defender Wainiqolo, who never really considers the possibility of this pass because Prendergast doesn’t give him obvious cues.

The Irish out-half isn’t moving at high speed but with a numbers-up situation, Prendergast squares up to engage Nayacalevu in front of him while he has the ball cocked near his right hip, ready to be released depending on how Wainiqolo reacts.

And as Wainiqolo [yellow below] begins to advance aggressively towards Gus McCarthy in front of him, Prendergast fires the flat double skip straight past him, all the while engaging Nayacalevu [red].

A try for Ireland should follow but the Fijians scramble well and Ikavivere earns a relieving breakdown turnover.

Soon after, Prendergast is inaccurate with a pass as Ireland attack from a midfield scrum.

Ireland’s starter play involves Henshaw running a late ‘overs’ line as he drifts towards the touchline.

Prendergast’s pass is at Henshaw’s back shoulder but he does well to catch it and rapidly flick the ball back inside to Frawley as Ireland make it well over the gainline.

Ireland end up going back to the penalty advantage at the scrum and Prendergast kicks them up into the Fijian 22, where they score through Aki.

The number 10 has a nice touch on the try-scoring phase as he adapts well to a mix-up when he ends up in a similar slot to Hansen.

Hansen is already out the back of the shape and looks set to receive the pass from Aki until Prendergast bursts across late and takes the ball instead. 

Hansen [yellow below] is suddenly ahead of Prendergast [red] but the out-half quickly realises that if he can run at the inside shoulder of Peni Matawalu [blue] and fix him, then a short pass will slip Hansen into space.

They make it work as Hansen slides to the right, Prendergast slows up his run slightly and starts to square up, attracting Matawalu to him before slipping the ball to Hansen. 

Izuchukwu throws a clever offload infield away from the touchline and Ireland score their fifth try.

Straight from the restart reception, we get another example of Prendergast’s classy passing. He sets up in the boot and takes the sweep pass from Gus McCarthy before making a good decision on the ball.

Again, Prendergast gets his option from the defence.

While he’s engaging Salawa [blue below] himself, Prendergast reads that Nayacalevu [yellow] is being enticed to hold on Frawley, the short passing option.

So Prendergast fizzes another flat skip pass wider to Aki [red].

Despite releasing the pass a split second before Salawa makes contact with him, Prendergast avoids getting levelled.

As Ireland continue to cause nightmares for Nayacalevu and co., Prendergast has more smart option-taking. His next pass comes on first phase of a lineout attack as he accepts a ‘circle’ pass out the back from Doris then gets the ball away just before Tuisova hits him.

As we see above, Prendergast goes out the back of Stuart McCloskey, whose decoy line sits Nayacalevu down, and Stockdale is able to get outside Fiji’s number 13.

Unfortunately, Stockdale injures his hamstring in this carry but Ireland make big gains down the right.

Ireland’s next attack into the 22 appears to be stuttering to a halt but Prendergast makes another good adaptation on the move as he dummies a long pass wide and instead slips McCloskey into space.

Because Prendergast has shaped to launch a long pass in the split second below, Fiji flanker Meli Derenalagi [red] leaps to try and block it, while Muntz [yellow] is advancing to shut it down.

Even as number eight Canakaivata gets close to making contact with Prendergast, the Irish out-half reacts to the defensive picture by dropping the shorter pass off to McCloskey. It’s behind the Irish centre but he reels it in and runs into space.

A few phases later, Cian Prendergast steps in at scrum-half and finds his younger brother, who rips another beautiful skip pass across the face of Nayacalevu.

Nayacalevu has bitten down on McCloskey and Ireland should score but Frawley throws a forward pass to stand-in wing Conor Murray and it’s chalked off. 

From the next Irish lineout attack, Prendergast goes to his kicking game and rolls a grubber in behind the Fijians. 

He takes a ball out the back from outside centre Stuart McCloskey, Ireland going one player wider with their ‘blocker’ play from the lineout. Prendergast has Hansen swinging up outside him.

There’s an option for Prendergast to shift the ball on to Hansen here but with Karawalevu jockeying out onto the Ireland wing and Vilimoni Botitu closing up from the backfield onto Murray, Prendergast looks for the space in behind. 

It’s well covered by Muntz, who grounds for a goal-line drop-out.

A few minutes later, Prendergast has an interchange of passes with Casey close to a ruck in the Fijian 22 as their understanding clearly grows, while Prendergast stands in at scrum-half and Casey kicks cross-field on penalty advantage a few phases later.

The halfbacks soon have an impassioned exchange of words when Casey heeds a call from Hansen to go into the shortside despite Prendergast calling for the ball out on the openside in the 22. It’s far from unusual for halfbacks to have these angry mini-chats.

There’s another one soon after when Prendergast throws a poor pass down the left-hand side in the Fijian 22.

McCloskey can’t reel it in and it looks forward from Prendergast anyway, but the out-half reacts with some stinging words in the direction of Casey.

It’s not clear what Prendergast is aggrieved about but it seems as if he wanted the ball delivered to him earlier than it was.

Casey had been set to pass from the base of the ruck before Doris decided to pick, snipe, and offload, so that wasn’t in Casey’s control.

The bottom line is that Prendergast makes an error with his pass but we’ve seen lots of other out-halves in the past who react like this when they don’t get exactly what they want.

Prendergast slightly overcooks a chip kick from an Irish scrum in the 75th minute.

The 21-year-old is a big fan of the chip as an attacking weapon but there’s a hint too much on this one and Wainiqolo can claim it.

Prendergast goes back to his attacking kicking game soon after, cross-kicking to the left where McCloskey just can’t hold the bouncing ball.

That proves to be Prendergast’s last real involvement in the game.

All in all, it’s a debut he’ll be pleased with, particularly after his reckless tackle landed him in trouble early in the game.

There were other errors along the way but the Ireland out-half was able to show his creativity and passing range in attack against a disjointed Fijian defence that was ripe for the picking.

And as so many of these examples show, the Irish players around Prendergast made his life much easier with their good decision-making and execution.

These are early days for Prendergast but it was a promising first start at number 10.