SAM PRENDERGAST CONTINUES to tick important boxes, with a visit to Thomond Park as Leinster’s number 10 the latest milestone for the 21-year-old.

Over the last five weeks, the Kildare man has enjoyed his first two Test starts for Ireland, his first two Champions Cup starts for Leinster, and now his first senior win over Munster with his province.

Typically enough for a young Irish man, he feels that everything is going “grand, like” in his burgeoning career.

Several of the Leinster forwards had strong claims to be the official player of the match in Friday night’s 28-7 win over Munster, but Prendergast impressed as he claimed another of those awards.

His kicking from hand was strong, including several eye-catching spirals, he passed as well as ever, took his first-half try sharply, and generally stood up to the physical and mental challenge. He felt there were a few “sloppy” moments in his performance against Munster but overall he was happy.

“I’m enjoying playing and enjoying these opportunities,” said Prendergast after the game.

“I had never played against Munster. I had never played down here at senior level so I enjoyed the crowd getting on top of us a bit.

“It makes it quite enjoyable. I was only saying that that’s the good thing about the derbies – there are such good crowds at all the games that it just makes it very enjoyable and a bit more intense. That’s where the fun really is.”

The Munster fans got stuck into Prendergast after he and Tom Ahern kicked off a second-half schemozzle and though they didn’t boo him when he was replaced later on, it’s clear that Prendergast wasn’t going to be the most popular man in Limerick. That comes with the territory for a Leinster number 10.

Prendergast was player of the match on Friday. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

Not that Prendergast felt they were particularly getting on his back.

“No, I think they just hate all of us so it was equally across all of us!” he said with a smile.

Prendergast was quick to praise his forwards for the armchair ride they gave him at times in Thomond Park.

The likes of Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, James Ryan, Rónan Kelleher, Andrew Porter, Rabah Slimani, and Joe McCarthy were powerful in the set-piece and around the pitch to give Leinster physical dominance.

“I thought the pack were unbelievable,” said Prendergast. “They give you such a good platform. They are bringing defenders in and that is giving you more space.”

And yet, Prendergast believes there’s lots of room for Leinster to get better over the coming months as they head into the second half of the season.

They have won nine from nine in the URC, seven of those victories coming with bonus points, while they’re two wins from two in the Champions Cup.

Next up is a visit to La Rochelle on 12 January and Prendergast knows there are areas where Leinster can improve for that clash.

“I think our defence was very good again today,” he said. “When you look at the first 10 minutes of the second half, we maybe slipped up in our discipline a little bit because we were good in defence. They were only getting ‘ins’ to our 22 when we were being indisciplined so we could maybe work on that.

“There are a few chances we left out there in attack and around the breakdown but that’s just the way these games are. Munster go hard at the breakdown and that’s just the way it is, you need to be able to deal with it.”