October 14th, 2023 is not a date anyone close to Irish rugby cares to remember. It was the last time Ireland coach Andy Farrell could say the name of his number 10 with absolute certainty.

Farrell used 22 players that night in Paris as New Zealand progressed to the World Cup semi-final after a 28-24 victory. It ended with Johnny Sexton inching his team the length of Stade de France, through 37 phases, until Sam Whitelock latched his body over Rónan Kelleher and referee Wayne Barnes blew for an All Blacks penalty.

Jack Crowley was the unused sub. Within five months the Munster 10 established himself as the Ireland outhalf during a successful defence of the Six Nations.

Within a year, the jersey passed to Sam Prendergast. The 23-year-old has repeatedly shown he has an incredibly high ceiling as both a kicker and distributor.

The decision around the Ireland 10 for the next World Cup appeared to have been made during the 2024/25 season, until another element of Prendergast’s game led to a steep slide down the pecking order. His inability to complete tackles has been glaringly obvious since Leinster’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton in May 2025.

“It’s clear now that his physicality is an issue,” Shane Horgan, the former Leinster wing, told the Second Captains podcast after Northampton repeatedly targeted Prendergast. “He got brushed off a number of times. He’s not physical enough, he’s not putting his shoulder to the wheel the way he should.”

Tackle technique did not appear to be the only problem.

“There’s a technique issue but you need a recklessness with your own body,” added Horgan. “He doesn’t appear to have it yet. This is not 20 years ago where you can carry someone at 10 who is not physical enough. It can’t be done.”

In February, Farrell cut Prendergast from the Ireland squad after the opening Six Nations matches against France and Italy, sparing him an afternoon in Twickenham as the defensively solid Crowley was recalled with Ciarán Frawley as cover.

“I think he’ll be fine,” said Leinster head coach Leo Cullen. “It’s a rocky road, isn’t it? You’ve got to just deal with some of the bumps along the way. Sam is someone who works unbelievably hard at all aspects of his game.”

Cullen dropped Prendergast for the Champions Cup knockout stages as Harry Byrne started with Frawley in reserve. That decision appeared to stem from a United Rugby Championship (URC) game on May 9th when Lions flanker Siba Mahashe straight-armed a woeful attempt at tackling.

“He has his arms together and he is looking away,” said Luke Fitzgerald, another former Leinster back, on the Left Wing podcast. “This is rugby, you have to enjoy contact otherwise you’ll never be the person to bring Leinster back to the top of the European game.

“You can’t hide someone like that, they will just always let you down. I hope I am wrong. But I’ve seen these guys come and go. You’ve got to want to be a winner. I’m very worried about him.”

Following defeat to Bordeaux-Bègles in the Champions Cup final in May, when the Connacht-bound Frawley impressed after replacing Byrne, Cullen switched back to Prendergast for the URC run-in.

Farrell also performed an about-turn for the summer tests against Australia and New Zealand, with Prendergast preferred ahead of Frawley as Crowley struggled with a vascular issue. The outhalf position is wide open a year before the World Cup.

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The tackle is where Hugh Hogan made his name in professional coaching. Leinster invented the “contact skills” role in 2018 by promoting him from their academy staff.

Hogan has coached for longer than he played. He took up the whistle with High School under-14s, his alma mater, while studying at Trinity College before a seamless move from captaining St Mary’s to an AIL title in 2012 to replacing Peter Smyth as head coach.

A black belt in karate, the former backrow spent eight years in the orbit of Joe Schmidt, Cullen and Stuart Lancaster before expanding his career at the Scarlets in Wales and the Suntory Sungoliath in Tokyo where he worked with Springbok wing Cheslin Kolbe.

“Cheslin is phenomenal. So powerful,” says Hogan. “He played on a school team that used to lose by 60 or 70 points so he had to find a way to survive on a pitch with huge South Africans. He’s athletically talented but a small man. Every action is at 110 per cent intensity, but he can back it up with another action, a split second later, by using every fibre of his being. I’ve never seen a player like him.”

After a stint with the Ireland women’s squad in 2025, Hogan is currently the Old Belvedere men’s head coach. He also helped St Mary’s SCT capture the Leinster schools cup last March.

“I’m 45 now and I’ve been coaching since I was 18, so I’ve made a thousand mistakes,” he said over coffee.

The game has completely changed during this period, mainly due to the existential threat of concussion. Tackle height has been forced below the shoulders in the professional game and below the sternum in amateur and schools rugby.

A specialist coach like Hogan has made a lasting impact. He has a clear understanding of what goes into a successful tackle.

Watch New Zealand versus South Africa over the past few weeks or St Mary’s versus Blackrock in the schools final and the same technique is visible. Players target a sweet spot, in the midriff, waiting until the last possible moment to stoop and complete the tackle with the “power of your legs”.

“We do the player a disservice by saying ‘get the body in front of the ball carrier’,” Hogan explains. ”I would coach tackling differently. You don’t need to take on the full mass or velocity of the ball carrier. Stepping in front, you are square, and you give the ball carrier an advantage to throw their weight on you or use footwork.

“Squaring up is your last card to play. Let the ball carrier make a decision. Run straight at me and I’ll drop down late. If they run towards space, you keep both shoulders live. Short paddle steps. Rotate. Control your feet. Tackle with the power of your legs.”

Hogan’s coaching technique has steadily evolved.

“It was Joe’s (Joe Schmidt) last season at Leinster when I started in the academy, and to align with the senior team we focused on accuracy at the breakdown.”

Schmidt’s calling card was unmistakable on October 14th, 2023. By then, the former Leinster and Ireland head coach was sitting in the All Blacks coaching box.

“Big time,” Hogan says, agreeing. “The game was evolving so much from the 2012/13 season. Rugby does not look the same anymore. It was more reckless. There were more standing tackles. High shots. Head impacts.

“There was a high level of brutality but less control in contact. Now we want to get low and through, but can we do it late?

“It’s about growing a skillset in a player. I genuinely believe that any player can learn the motor pattern. If we are supporting them in the right way, you can build up their decision-making and the cues of when they drop their body.”

Hogan finds it easier to sketch out his tackle drills.

“In Bounce, the book by Matthew Syed, he uses the table tennis example. The British champion was phenomenal at the table. All his different reflexes were tested and he was average across all metrics. But he grew up playing in a garage with no space behind him. So, his experience was [having] no time because he couldn’t stand back.

“With the best players, the decision-making time can be compressed. All your actions can be later. Just repeat the physical action.

“As Eddie Jones says, ‘you need to ensure the player experience is at a percentage of failure’. Make the drills a lesson in failure. Put the tackler under duress from a time perspective. Players will self-correct relatively quickly.”

The wonder about Prendergast is how such a rare talent came through a rugby school like Newbridge College, the Leinster academy and Ireland under-20s without his defence being addressed long before he was capped at senior level.

“I don’t know Sam at all and I do not want to pass judgment on him,” says Hogan. “I am a fan of his game. I do remember watching him play Ireland 20s and it was clear he wasn’t one of the strongest defenders. That is probably the best time for intervention and to build a robust plan with the player.”

Hogan coached Frawley and Byrne at Leinster and he noted how they had to develop their defence through repetition.

“Ciarán had to reinvent himself as a 12. It took an incredible amount of work. Under pressure, a player will deviate to what they know best, so it takes time to change a habit or to go to a hardwired motor response.

“If you throw Sam a ball, he wouldn’t think about what he did next. The action is innate. The parts of the game that you have to think about in a short time frame is when you will be stressed.”

Perhaps, like O’Gara, Prendergast’s exceptional kicking and range of passing made his fast tracking a risk worth taking. It is a debate that will only intensify between now and the next World Cup quarter-final.

“I’ll always try to connect with a player to draw the solutions from them,” Hogan adds. “Sometimes you work as a quasi-therapist. Sit down and have a chat. ‘This is what you said to me, this is what works for you, why don’t we move towards that?’ Simplify everything because you don’t want to mess with their brain.”