You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (July 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Cian Prendergast]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Cian Prendergast}} to the talk page.
Prendergast grew up in County Kildare and began playing rugby with Newbridge RFC (Ireland) at mini's level. He attended Newbridge College and captained both his school's Senior Cup team and the Leinster schools team in 2018. He also played Gaelic football for Suncroft.
Prendergast joined the Connacht academy in summer 2020.[2] The following October he made his senior debut in Round 3 of the 2020–21 Pro14 against Edinburgh.[3] In March 2021, Connacht announced that he had signed a professional contract with the club.[4] In May 2022, and with one year on his deal still to run, Connacht announced a new longer term contract to keep him at the club until 2025.[5]
In June 2022, he was included in the Ireland squad for the 2022 tour of New Zealand.[7] In November 2022, Prendergast was named on the bench and subsequently gained his first full cap in a test victory against Fiji.[8][9]
In January 2023 he was named in Ireland's squad for the Six Nations. The following August Prendergast won his second cap off the bench against Italy and was then selected for his first international start at number eight against England.[10]
He was controversially left out of the 2024 Men's Six Nations squad,[11] while there isn't a confirmed reason for this, its likely the inclusion of Ulster flanker Nick Timoney in the squad is what meant Prendergast missed selection. Despite him being capped in 2022, and then starting for Ireland last year against England in the 2023 Summer Nations Series.[12]