Stephen Ferris believes any talk of Sam Prendergast being fast-tracked into consideration for Ireland's squad for the upcoming Six Nations is premature and feels the Leinster out-half needs to be given time to establish himself and build experience.
Former Ulster and Ireland back row Ferris was speaking on RTÉ's Game On on the back of a weekend which saw his native province earn a 22-21 inter-pro victory away at Leinster in the BKT United Rugby Championship.
The 20-year-old Prendergast started the game for Leinster in what was just his eighth senior appearance for the province but it was Ulster out-half Billy Burns who made the most telling contribution during the contest.
While Ferris is among a plethora of observers excited by Prendergast's potential, he said some of the focus on the Kildare youngster did not sit well with him.
"I'm not naming the media outlet but during the week there was all this chat about, should Sam Prendergast be given the opportunity to play for Ireland in the Six Nations and to be honest, I was listening to it going, 'this is so Leinster blue-tinted glasses sort of stuff I'm listening to'. It actually struck a nerve with me," he said.
"It was very annoying and frustrating to listen to. This is a young guy who undoubtedly has talent and potential but he has to prove himself in big games and he has to prove that he can manage his team around.
"I thought he did that reasonably well but it doesn't help when his opposite man, Billy Burns, ended up getting man of the match and controlled things very nicely for Ulster.
"I know [Burns] went off injured in the last 10 minutes and [Nathan] Doak came on and did really well but it almost felt like the whole lead-up to this game that it was just a given for Leinster to win it."
Ferris was impressed by Ulster's performance in difficult conditions and evidence of their resolve in a season which has mostly been marked by inconsistency.
"Sometimes it's just about rolling your sleeves up and putting all your energy into making the impacts and making those collisions big when you're involved in them - and they did that," he said.
"That's something we haven't seen. But it wouldn't surprise me if in the next couple of weeks we see a really poor Ulster performance again.
"I know the chat coming out is that they're to play a different way and that they're in a sort of transitional period with the style of rugby that they're trying to play.
"But teams will also figure out what Ulster are trying to do to them and I think sometimes they can have lapses of concentration or they're just not up for some games - the Edinburgh game at home was a shambles and I was on chatting about that and pressure was mounting severely on Dan McFarland and the rest of the coaching group - but you've got to give them a bit of credit.
"They've turned it around. They've beaten Leinster. I think it's 23 losses out of 25 visits to the RDS so to get that scalp was brilliant and will do wonders for their confidence as well heading into a couple of big weeks in Europe."
