LONG READ Sixth-choice loosehead and second-chance inspiration get their biggest Ireland starts

Cian Prendergast remembers the crushing phone he received back in April 2020.

Prendergast had just turned 20 and was observing the lockdowns imposed by the Covid-19 outbreak. Rugby was not the only sport facing an uncertain future, but Prendergast was driven by the goal of making the Leinster academy.

The Curragh native had captained his schools team at Newbridge College, and led a Leinster’s Schools side that featured Brian Deeny and Bobby Sheehan, younger brother of Dan. He spent 2018 and 2019 with Leinster’s sub academy but would go no further. Noel McNamara, who has masterminded back-to-back Champions Cup wins for Bordeaux-Begles, was Leinster’s academy manager back then. He had seven spots to offer. Two would go to back-rows – Alex Soroka and Seán O’Brien – but three was a crowd.

“I got a phone call off Noel during lockdown,” Prendergast says. “It was like, ‘Listen, we don’t have a place for you’. The world came crashing down around me, at that time. I didn’t know what I was going to do. About 24, 36 hours later, I get a phone call from Eric Elwood. He said, ‘We’d like to offer you a place in the Connacht academy’. I’ll be forever grateful for that, because it was a second chance for me.”

In the current Irish rugby set-up, there are no finer examples of players grasping second chances than Prendergast and Tadhg Beirne. Both were cut loose by Leinster, contemplated careers outside of rugby and found their tribe elsewhere. As the years have progressed, Prendergast and Beirne have proved extremely versatile – covering second row and across the back row. Beirne is eight years older than Prendergast – a fellow Kildare man – and has been named on World Rugby’s dream team of the year on three occasions. This Saturday in Sydney, the veteran backs up Prendergast on Ireland’s bench for their Nations Championship opener against the Wallabies.

“Cian has come a long way within his development over the last 12 months,” said Andy Farrell, after naming him to start in a back row with Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan. “The learnings he took from the autumn into the start of the Six Nations and how that progressed, and continued to progress. We always talk about how that type of experience stands to them when they go back to their province. I think he’s been outstanding for Connacht, so he deserves this start.”

In 2022, this writer met Prendergast in Galway to hear how that early Leinster blow steeled him for the path ahead. “I remember having conversations with lads who had got academy offers for Leinster. I was very jealous but look, I wouldn’t change my journey now for anything.”

Within six months of accepting that academy position from Elwood, Prendergast made his Connacht debut against Edinburgh. His third and fourth games of senior rugby were against Racing 92 and Bristol in the Champions Cup. In at the deep end. He played 10 times that season, with the stand-out memory a call to his parents, Mark and Ciara, letting them know he had been selected to start against Munster at Thomond Park. “They were delighted,” he said. “My mum gets very, very nervous. I think she was nearly going to throw up! Thinking about who I was going to play, how big they were, and all that. My brother was even more nervous.”

The brother Prendergast referred to is Sam, the vaunted Leinster and Ireland fly-half three years his junior. When Cian was younger, soccer was his first love and he worshipped Roy and Robbie Keane.  “I wasn’t that good at rugby until I was 15, and I hit a bit of a growth spurt,” he told me. “I fancied myself as a bit of an outhalf – the next Johnny Sexton.”

This Saturday, Cian will start at blindside in an Irish team that has Sexton on the coaching staff and Sam in the 10 jersey.

Six years on from taking one of the worst calls of his young life, Prendergast had another good one to make to his parents.

‘This guy has all the tools to make it to the very top’

For a time, the iconic Willie Anderson was the doyen of Ulster youth rugby. The former Ireland lock was the province’s academy manage and spoke well of players who had passed through his system, such as Nathan Doak, James Hume, Mike Lowry and David McCann. Speaking four years ago, he reserved the highest praise for two men.

“Rob Baloucoune is going to be a British and Irish Lion,” Anderson declared. “Mark my words.”

The other player was Tom O’Toole. “This guy has all the tools to make it to the very top,” he said. “He has incredible strength, solid technique and just loves the scrum battle. He can go all day, that lad. I’ve no doubt he’ll make a fine international, for many years.”

By that stage, O’Toole had made his Ireland debut at tighthead in a July 2021 win over USA which also marked Baloucoune’s first start. He grew up in Drogheda but moved with his family to Brisbane when he was six. He spent 10 years in Australia, playing with Padua College and getting selected for a Queensland Reds development side, before the O’Toole clan headed back home. The young prop was named Ulster’s academy player of the year, under Anderson’s tutelage, in 2018. He would tour New Zealand in 2022 and feature in all five games of Ireland’s 2023 Six Nations Grand Slam triumph.

O’Toole never really kicked on from there. He made Ireland’s World Cup squad later that year but only played against Romania. There was a sole appearance against Italy in the 2024 Six Nations. If a legend such as Anderson rated him so highly, there had to be something more.

O’Toole played a solitary Test against Portugal in 2025 and two games for Ireland A. He was falling down the pecking order but that first A match offered a glimpse of where O’Toole now finds himself. Mike Prendergast and Jimmy Duffy selected him at loosehead. From an Irish perspective, most eyes were drawn to younger picks, such as Hugh Gavin and Jude Postlethwaite. O’Toole did okay, having switched to the other side of the front row. Few took proper notice of the selection until one year later when Ireland found themselves needing to get creative.

Andrew Porter, Jack Boyle and Paddy McCarthy all missed this year’s Six Nations through injury. Munster’s Jeremy Loughmann got the number one jersey for the opening three games, but Farrell was giving O’Toole more and more training ground reps in the position. He jumped Michael Milne to back up Loughman from the bench against Italy and England. When Loughman injured his calf, O’Toole was promoted to the starting XV. Here was the third-choice tighthead and sixth-choice loosehead being asked to make lemonade from a handful of sad-looking lemons and a pinch of sugar.

The 27-year-old gave a fine account of himself in wins over Wales and Scotland. Following the Wales game, during which he won two crucial scrum penalties, O’Toole gave thanks to then-Ulster teammate Angus Bell, who he will face on Saturday.

“It is amazing what Tom’s done,” Farrell raved. “I don’t think anyone could underestimate that fact. It’s somewhat more difficult than what people would think. But what’s been really impressive is how he committed to it.”

Loughman is back fit and Connacht’s Billy Bohan is the latest young loosehead off the ranks, but Farrell has kept faith in O’Toole. The scrummaging challenge facing him is one which gave the Lions plenty of issues last summer. He is being asked to pack down against Michael Ala’alatoa then, if he has much in the tank, see how he fares against Taniela Tupou. There are easier ways to spend your Saturday.

O’Brien injury means Ireland cannot follow Leinster’s lead

It is notable how Leinster, following their Champions Cup final defeat to Bordeaux-Begles, switched to a centre pairing of Jamie Osborne and Rieko Ioane. That duo started the URC quarter- and semi-final before helping Leinster tear the Bulls asunder in the decider.

Many in Ireland would love Osborne to get a decent run Farrell’s midfield. With Stuart McCloskey in the form of his life, it would be nice to see Osborne get the 13 jersey. That will not happen in Sydney though, with Tommy O’Brien’s injury meaning the 24-year-old now starts on the left wing. Retaining James Lowe for another season would have helped here, but the veteran is taking this summer off as he gears up for a lucrative club rugby stint in Japan.

Farrell could have turned to Jacob Stockdale to cover the left wing. Instead, he turns to Osborne for what should be an aerial bombardment. “Obviously, there are a few reasons as to why you settle on something in the end,” Farrell noted. “One, he’s been playing, and playing really well, and two, he’s a bloody good rugby player in whatever position he’s playing.”

One hopes Farrell keeps an open mind and gives Osborne at least one summer start at centre. This weekend, though, him taking on Max Jorgensen should be worth a good chunk of the admission fee.