Sean O'Brien believes there’s no better place for Sam Prendergast to serve his apprenticeship than at home.
After starring for Ireland in the Under-20 Grand Slam win in the spring, Prendergast made another notable impression on his senior debut.
The 20-year-old kicked 14 points as Leinster clawed their way to a 39-36 BKT URC victory against the Emirates Lions, a match played at altitude in Johannesburg.
His performance was not only deemed worthy of the man of the match award but also of the URC player of the weekend nod.
The Kildare native is now firmly in the mix for more game-time with Leinster and that presents the kind of headache that coaches love.
With Johnny Sexton having finished his Leinster playing career, Prendergast will now battle for game-time in the 10 shirt with Ross Byrne, Harry Byrne and Ciaran Frawley.
But the suggestion that Prendergast or other players who might not get as many minutes as they want could benefit from "loan" moves, to the French second tier, for example, was given short shrift by contact skills coach O’Brien.
"Honestly, no, I don’t think it is," he told RTÉ Sport.
"The development of a player like him, or others in that situation...what way are they going to develop the best?
"For our sake and for the Irish set-up's sake, it’s probably in his home province where he’s going to get really good coaching, where he’s going to get minded and looked after well.
"You put someone, any young fella, into PRO D2 or wherever you are going, it could be anywhere, they could be thrown in the deep end and not managed properly maybe, or mightn’t have the standard of coaching, so there are a lot of elements to it.
"Where is the best place for him to develop and have a very long career?
"Not just in the short term but in the long term we do want Sam playing here in Leinster for the next 10, 15 years hopefully."
O’Brien, who is leading the squad this week ahead of their URC match-up with the Vodacom Bulls, added that the involvement of so many of the Leinster team in the national squad will open the door for younger players at the province.
"You look at Ross, Frawls, Harry and these boys, they are going to be involved in the international set-up, hopefully," he said.
"You look at the schedule we have ahead of us: World Cup year, the management of them coming back into the squad whenever that is so there’s going to be opportunities for the younger out-halves, the younger players to get lots of game-time and exposure and that’s the great thing about this tour.
"It gives them the exposure and the experience and let’s us get our hands on them a little bit more as coaches."
Meanwhile, Leinster prop Ed Byrne (above, right) has been impressed by the former Newbridge College student Prendergast, who landed the winning score at the death.
"He’s been brilliant, he’s really taken to that role well and he’s leading the group unbelievably well," said the six-cap Ireland international.
"You’ve seen some of his play-calling, especially for Chris Cosgrave’s try and things like that.
"He’s taken to his role really well and he’s been brilliant around the place as well.
"He loves his rugby and you can see that and I think he’s worked really hard and done a great job for us."
Leinster also confirmed that back row Rhys Ruddock will miss the final game of their tour with a hamstring injury and that prop Vakhtang Abdaladze, who suffered a neck injury, will be assessed during the week.
Back Tommy O'Brien, who had been out with a knee injury, came through the match unscathed.
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