Cian Prendergast has praised his brother Sam, as he showed his class to close out a dramatic win for Ireland against Australia in Sydney on Saturday night.
Both Prendergast brothers were on the scoreboard, with Cian forcing his way over the line for Ireland’s opening try, while Sam slotted four out of five conversion attempts, the last of which gave Ireland the lead with two minutes to play.
It was just the second time the Prendergast brothers had started together for Ireland, and the outcome was much different from the first time, when Ireland lost their Six Nations opener away to France in February, and Cian was particularly thrilled for his younger brother in Sydney.
‘I suppose every time you play for Ireland, there’s an element of pressure,’ Cian said. ‘We don’t want to make it about ourselves when we both get picked together. It’s about producing a performance for Ireland, and yeah, I’m just delighted we got the result.
‘Obviously, the game in Paris the last time we started together didn’t go the way we wanted to, so it was brilliant to get the result there.
‘It was brilliant, and obviously I’m delighted for Sam to slot the kick. I thought he was brilliant and managed the game excellently in the second half in the right areas of the field.’
Cian Prendergast was clearly full of praise for his younger brother for his performance against Australia, hilariously adding that Sam had ‘some set of stones on him’ to slot over the winning kick in the dying minutes of the game.
Cian marked his 12th cap by scoring Ireland’s first of five tries. The Connacht captain enjoyed a strong season and has carried that form over to the international stage, now hoping to keep his place in the team for next Saturday’s second Nations Championship pool game against Japan.
‘Everyone wants to play for Ireland; everyone wants to be part of this team and the journey this team is on. So yeah, we’ll see what next week brings.’
Hell of a Test W! 👊 pic.twitter.com/qOtzIrPbci
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) July 4, 2026
