‘Emerging’ Ireland LiteAce Tour II '24 v Pumas Oct2 3pm, v WestForce Oct6 12pm, v Cheetahs Oct9 12pm

Some lovely passing and kicking from Prendergast mixed in with some underwhelming stuff. He looked completely spent from about 55 minutes in though so was impressed he held it together as much as he did despite being gassed

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I agree with Podge_irl, SP missed a very handy kick, one we could have done with at the time. On the plus side he had a lovely slightly delayed pass to put through someone who then offloaded for one of the tries. Didn't look like much and you'd hope every player on the team would do the same but it was nicely done and enabled the try to be almost a cert. He had a tidy game, very good touchfinders, not sure about in open play as much, I'd have to watch again and focus on him.

Kendellen was superb, winning ball on the ground against the kosh, great defensive efforts as well as busy with ball in hand. Thought he led well.

Mullins is very exciting in broken play though he does crab infield a bit, other 'traditional' wingers would probably straight more and take contact but make more ground before it first.

We really hurt them on transition, when we turned over their ball we were lethal. Some exciting stuff played at times.

Thought he did OK considering how long he was out of the game with injury. Got a yellow in second half and didn't come back on

Thought prendergast was very good. Made the sort of errors most young 10's make early doors. Sexton and Rog both were inconsistent with the placed kicks early doors. The odd misplaced touch finder.

Main thing for me is he has the full range of skills and his defense has improved.

I don't think anyone was released back last time round, right? I'm not a fan of it, but they seemed to have learned some lessons from it, at least.

That was a full blooded game and Western Province were extremely tough opponents. Full credit to EI for bringing that one home.

The Force front 5 were all seasoned pros in Super Rugby, Premiership, URC and Internationals comps.

It was a significant test for our front 5 who had a combined total of 38 pro senior appearances for their provinces (and 30 of them were Izuchukwu) and they stood up really well.

There's a really satisfying bullishness in the pack which was good to see. Kendellen, Soroka and Jansen in the back row never took a backwards step and as a unit comprehensively outplayed their peers.

Backline play was positive. Coughlan looked lively and has a zippy pass. Postlethwaite looks ready to have a huge breakout season for Ulster. He really is a large fella and uses his size well but doesn't rely on it. He's skillful too.

Cooney is a comparatively diminutive figure but possesses a nice skill set, good tackle technique and a clean set of heels.

Prendergast looked much better this game and didn't force as much. Defensively he's unrecognisable from last season. I kept a closer eye on it and I didn't spot a single miss. He was happy to lend a shoulder in a tackle assist, got low and chopped a few and overall had a solid defensive showing that one would expect from a 10.

His misses at goal were unfortunate. The penalty miss in on 69 minutes was sadly inexcusable. On the 22, on the 15m line, on his favoured side for a right footed kicker, that's in his 95% zone on his kicking map. I do think fatigue probably played a factor (he looked absolutely knackered running back after it).

But he did follow this miss up with nearly immediately with the best 50:22 I have seen to date. Jaw droppingly good.

A little strange to see Kendellen and Izuchukwu, the two best forwards over the previous 2 games, fully miss out here. You would feel we'll miss both of them a lot.

Still a nice looking team though - lots of pace and game breaking ability in the backline, and some big units and good carriers amongst the forwards too.

Think you've cracked it Lawrence. It's the Sam Prendergast tour, with added benefits for Kendellen, Izzy, Postlethwaite, Usanov, Aungier, Smyth, Murray, Sheridan, O'Connell, Ward, O'Connor, Gavin, Cooney and Culhane. Maybe others too but I'm trying to be critical. Will very likely add Edogbo to that list, and possibly Foley and Osborne as well, on Wednesday afternoon.

Hopefully Leinster's 3rd (/2nd?) choice 10 comes through Wednesday unscathed and everyone else can clap themselves on the back for facilitating.

his biggest issue has been injury, missed most of the past two seasons due to injury.

I think he's appropriately estimated by the coaches in Leinster in fairness to him.

Ruddock is retired so there is a handful of minutes that became available.

But the truth for Culhane is he's competing against Doris, Conan and Deegan. And that's before you consider who might be on the bench with the likes of Connors, Baird and Penny also vying for the 20 shirt.

He's clearly rated as a leader in the Leinster squad - he captained us against Bordeaux this season.

I'm excited to see how he lifts his game and starts knocking on the door for opportunities though