Prendergast: I Know This Group’s Character, We’ll Bounce Back

A Guinness Men’s Six Nations debutant in Paris, Cian Prendergast has confidence in the character of the Ireland squad that they will not let an opening night defeat to France define their 2026 Championship.

Andy Farrell’s men had a first half to forget against the defending champions, conceding three tries before Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s second score of the night took care of the bonus point and made it 29-0 with over half an hour still to play.

Ireland did lift their game, aided by the impact of their bench, and converted efforts from replacements Nick Timoney and Michael Milne briefly threatened a comeback until Théo Attissogbe had the final say for France.

The visitors’ performance contained few positives, but the set-piece battle was evenly fought – Ireland won 100% of their own scrums and lost just one of their 17 lineouts – and between them, Ulster pair Stuart McCloskey and Timoney made 81.6 metres from 22 carries and two line breaks, beat four defenders, scored a try, and supplied a try assist.

The players and coaches returned to camp today with a clear focus on correcting what went wrong against France, and as Farrell said in the aftermath at the Stade de France, his Ireland side will ‘need to be on point’ to beat an ever-improving Italy at home next Saturday.

“I know the character of this group. I know we will bounce back. The Six Nations isn’t lost,” said back rower Prendergast, speaking after his first Six Nations appearance in the green jersey.

“It’s never won or lost in the first round so we’ll show up to work on Sunday, we’ll be honest with each other in how we review it and we’ll be a better side off the back of that.

“I’ve played Italy before, they’ve got brilliant players playing in the Top 14 and in the URC. They are physical, so it’s another challenge and we will just have to get ready for that.”

Prendergast started at blindside flanker against France and was one Ireland’s leading defenders, making a dozen tackles during his 50 minutes on the pitch. It was his ninth international cap, and came on the back of three appearances off the bench in November.

The 25-year-old played with his younger brother Sam at Test level for the first time against Fiji in 2024. Thursday night’s game represented the first time they have started together, becoming the first set of brothers to do so for Ireland since Niall and Rory Scannell against Japan in 2017.

Irish Rugby has a very proud record of siblings donning the green shirt – Joe and Paddy McCarthy are the 58th set of brothers to play for Ireland since the latter’s debut in the autumn – and Cian agreed that his first Six Nations start was even more special given Sam lined out at out-half.

“It was cool. It’s always special when we get to play together. We had family here at the game but ultimately we don’t really like making it about ourselves during the week.

“We’re just focused on putting on a performance for Ireland, and we’re just disappointed we didn’t get to do it.

“It was our first start in any kind of game together. Maybe some underage Gaelic football, but I don’t even think we’ve started together in those games.

“It is something we’ll definitely look back on in a few years, but at the moment it’s probably just disappointing we didn’t get the result.”

This is the Kildare native’s second season as Connacht captain, and he has shown his leadership qualities on both good and bad days for the province over the last 18 months, including the recent clash with Leinster when the impressive new Clan Stand was officially opened at Dexcom Stadium.

He has had to wait patiently for his first taste of Six Nations rugby. He first made the squad for the 2023 Championship but did not play, and unfortunately had to withdraw from the matchday 23 for the Wales match last year due to illness.

The Ireland management have seen further growth in his game since then, with head coach Farrell saying he feels the athletic flanker has ‘matured a lot’ with the responsibility of captaining his provincial team, and that ‘his time is now, to be taken’.

Reflecting on breaking into the team for the start of the Six Nations campaign, Prendergast admitted: “Yeah, look, it’s something I’ve been searching for for a number of years.

“It’s incredibly special obviously to play in a tournament like this. I’m proud, but obviously I would have liked to win the game. Every year you learn, every game you learn.

“I definitely feel that the responsibility given to me in Connacht has helped me grow. It’s challenged me, it hasn’t been smooth sailing all the time.

“You can only grow when you’re put in challenges like that, so it’s nice to feel like you’ve grown and it’s good to get opportunities like this.”

While the Suncroft man expressed his obvious disappointment with what was a frustrating performance and result in Paris, he insisted that an honest review should help last year’s Triple Crown winners to ‘learn and go forward’.

Missed tackles, very little reward from their kicking game, and a general lack of intent – something which Farrell highlighted afterwards – played into France’s hands during the first half, and the hosts had the personnel to profit from breaking balls or half chances.

Bielle-Biarrey, the 2025 Six Nations Player of the Championship and top try scorer, continued where he left off last spring, fit-again French captain Antoine Dupont showed his class again on his return to international rugby, and Mickaël Guillard and Charles Ollivon shone as a mobile second row pairing.

Asked about what went wrong for Ireland during that first half, Prendergast replied: “It’s hard to pinpoint one thing, it just felt like France were probably getting, I wouldn’t say, the bounce of the ball, but I think they were probably playing better in that looser kind of game.

“They were probably winning more collisions than we were, which was disappointing. And look, they’re too good a side, they’ve too much X-factor.

“They get half a sniff and they’re a brilliant team to take advantage of it. They’ve got a lot of X-factor in the back-three, and obviously your man (Dupont) at 9 is brilliant, so it’s tough.”

He added: “It’s hard to know individually because at the time all you’re thinking about is the loss but the character the lads showed in the second half (was a positive), to put ourselves in a position where maybe we could have come back but we’d given ourselves that huge task.”