21-YEAR-OLD out-half Sam Prendergast is set to stay with Leinster despite having the option to move to Connacht on loan for next season.
With JJ Hanrahan having suffered an ACL injury that will rule him out for a large part of the 2024/25 campaign, Connacht are on the lookout for a new signing at out-half to compete with Jack Carty.
The western province made an approach to bring Prendergast to Galway on loan but The 42 understands that the talented playmaker is set to stay with Leinster next season and push for more senior starts.
Kildare man Prendergast showed his exciting ability again last weekend when he started for Leo Cullen’s side at number 10 against Connacht, his sixth senior start for Leinster, and will hope to kick on and compete with first-choice out-half Ross Byrne.
Prendergast was outstanding for the Ireland U20s in 2022 as he helped them to a Grand Slam and the World Cup final. He has played for Leinster 17 times at senior level, while he joined Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad for a pre-Six Nations training camp ahead of this year’s Six Nations.
A loan move to Connacht might have presented him with lots of playing opportunities but it now looks like Prendergast will instead be pushing for further involvement with Leinster in 2024/25.
That means Connacht are still searching for a new addition at out-half. Their academy includes 21-year-old Harry West and 19-year-old Sean Naughton but neither youngster has been capped at senior level yet.
It seems there may still be some hope of signing an out-half from Leinster on loan even if it’s not to be Prendergast.
Harry Byrne and Ciarán Frawley are the two other senior out-half options in Cullen’s squad and it could be that Connacht and the IRFU push for one of them to make the move west.
Frawley seems unlikely to be interested given his involvement in Leinster and Ireland’s matchday 23s for some of the biggest games in recent times. His versatility can be seen as a drawback in terms of the battle for the number 10 shirt but it does mean he can excel at fullback and inside centre too, making him an important player for Leinster.
This season, Byrne has made his most appearances ever for Leinster in a single campaign with 17, starting 11 times including twice in the Champions Cup, but he could potentially see that game time squeezed if Prendergast is to move up the pecking order next season.
Whether Byrne would be interested in moving provinces is unclear, particularly given that he made two appearances for Ireland in this year’s Six Nations and only recently had a contract extension with Leinster publicly confirmed.
Connacht have IRFU permission to sign a non-Irish-qualified out-half if they don’t secure someone from within Irish rugby.
Meanwhile, Leinster have made an approach to sign 34-year-old French tighthead prop Rabah Slimani ahead of next season, as first reported by Midi Olympique in France.
Leinster have been on the search for a replacement for the outgoing Samoan international tighthead Michael Ala’alatoa, who is joining Top 14 side Clermont this summer.
Slimani is the current first-choice tighthead at Clermont but his contract there expires this summer and Leinster are understood to be in talks to bring him to Ireland next season.
There had been interest in Australia tighthead Taniela Tupou earlier this year, while Leinster are also believed to have explored the possibility of signing Ulster’s Tom O’Toole or Connacht’s Finlay Bealham, but it seems Slimani could end up as Leinster’s new tighthead.
The former Stade Français prop won 57 caps for France but his most recent Test was in 2019 so he is not a current international. Slimani brings major experience and scrummaging nous so is seen as an ideal player to back up Tadhg Furlong.
