Given his older sibling Cian has been with the westerners since 2020 – and was recently named their club captain – this is an arrangement that would have made a lot of sense for Prendergast.

Yet the Kildare native ultimately opted to remain within the eastern province and is now set to make his second start of the present term when Leo Cullen’s men take on the Lions at the Aviva Stadium in the United Rugby Championship this evening (kick-off 5.15pm).

“I suppose you’re always thinking ‘well maybe I can do better with a bit of game time’ and stuff like that. Did I give it thought? I suppose I did, yeah. Being honest, I did, and it was selfish, but it’s also from a team point of view as well. All I was thinking was ‘how do I become the Leinster number 10?’,” Prendergast remarked earlier this week.

“I only want to play for Leinster. That’s where I want to achieve things, but it’s how do I become the Leinster number 10? It was giving the thought of ‘is it from going to somewhere else where maybe I’ll get more game time?’ I ended up not thinking that was the best decision, but I did give it thought.

“Eventually I just decided this is the place. Well, I suppose I never had to think about that, whether this was the place for me, it was just how do I get to being the number one here. I think that’s a constant battle because there’s always people ahead of you and there’s always people coming up behind you.”

Although tonight’s game will be Prendergast’s first appearance for Leinster since their URC opener against Edinburgh on September 20, this is partly due to the fact that he started all three fixtures that Emerging Ireland played on their recent tour of South Africa. Having been part of the main international squad for their summer visit to the same nation in July, Wednesday also saw Prendergast being named in Andy Farrell’s 35-man selection for their upcoming Autumn Nations Series campaign.

Joining him in the squad for this international window is his aforementioned brother Cian, who has three international caps to his name. After following in his footsteps on several occasions in the past, the younger Prendergast will once again be seeking to emulate the 24-year-old Connacht forward in the near future by making his Ireland senior debut.

“When I was younger, maybe in second year or third year in school, I wasn’t hugely into rugby, but then that was when he [Cian] started to play Leinster U18s and Irish U18s. I was watching it like, ‘yeah, maybe this is what I want to do’,” Prendergast added.

“Then when I’m still in school, I think it was during covid when I was doing my Leaving Cert, you’re coming home on a Friday night and he’s playing different games. Starting to break into the Connacht team and he’s playing for their first team. It was great to watch him playing and you’re always aspiring to be better and better.”

Of course, the Springboks went on from there to secure the Webb Ellis Cup for the second time in succession before welcoming Ireland to their shores for a two-test summer tour in July of this year.

Several months prior to squaring off in that series (which ended with Ireland and South Africa recording one win apiece), it had been confirmed that Snyman was going to join forces with Ryan in Leinster for their 2024/25 campaigns in the United Rugby Championship and the European Champions Cup.

Their five bonus-point victories to date in the former have included interprovincial derby successes over Munster and Connacht with Snyman and Ryan being the starting locks of choice for both games.

“He’s class. The way he goes about his business in the preparation for a game is also something that people can look up to. He goes out of his way to make sure he’s 100% prepped and even the guys around him as well,” Snyman said of Ryan.

Ahead of being named in South Africa’s squad for their forthcoming series of autumn internationals in Europe, Snyman was speaking at a Leinster media briefing in UCD on Monday.

When asked if he found Ryan to be a better player having now trained and played alongside him, he admitted there are some areas of his game he now has a greater respect for.

“That’s a tough question. I guess I’ve just got to see a little bit more of him now, so you find appreciation for a lot more things that you now know that he’s doing. There is a lot more that I can see him doing now. For instance, I would never really have noticed his breakdown work before.

“Obviously you look at defence, you look at attack and you look at lineouts. All of these things when you are playing against teams. His contributions at the breakdown and the way he approaches that is something that is really exciting.”

Despite only making three appearances to date – he is expected to enjoy a fourth outfit against South African opposition in the shape of Emirates Lions at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening – Snyman has already had a significant impact in the colours of Leinster.

He recorded five tries in 10 appearances during the final few months of his time in Munster and has maintained that scoring form in the eastern province by crossing the whitewash against both his former club and Connacht on consecutive weekends.

Aside from his physicality – he stands at 6 feet 9 inches and weighs 117 kg – Snyman has also been noted throughout his career for having an eye-catching offloading game.

This is something that was driven into him from a very young age and while he acknowledges there are risks that come with it, he believes Leinster is the right environment for him to showcase this side of his game.

“It was definitely my Dad who instilled that into my playing style from a young age. When I was growing up, he would always encourage me to ‘don’t let the ball die, just keep it alive, keep giving it to someone else if you feel you can’t go anywhere with it anymore’. That’s probably the biggest influence, throwing the ball around a bit,” Snyman added.

“It’s almost every time you step into a new system, guys are a little bit new to understanding where to be or to expect it, but I thought the guys here just got it straight away. It has always been encouraged, but throughout my career as well, you need to learn when to do it and when not to do it. I think there is a bit of a balance in it as well.”

Yet – after previously enjoying a 16-month stint at arch rivals Munster – Nienaber had already agreed to become part of Leo Cullen’s backroom staff at Leinster upon the conclusion of the 2023 edition of the RWC. Currently contracted to the eastern province until 2026, the defence specialist outlined a couple of key differences between international and club rugby that have – to date – helped to make a switch to the latter worthwhile.

“I think it’s two games. International rugby isn’t as creative as club rugby, because you don’t work as long with them. You only get them in a week before a test match. So you work one week with the players and then you go into a test match. Obviously the consequences like I mentioned, it’s the country that loses,” Nienaber remarked at a Leinster media briefing in UCD.

“The consequences to your actions are a lot bigger than at club level. Where at club level, if you lose a game, it’s not written in history. If you lose a final, it’s written in history. But if you lose a match, it doesn’t matter what test match, it’s written in history. So you miss that. That all or nothing aspect of it. That’s the one side, but the side that I was keen on was the creativity side of things.

“I do miss it in the one sense, but if you ask me ‘do you want to go back there now?’ No, I don’t want to go back there. I like the development that I’m currently, as a coach, experiencing and the stimulus that I’m getting currently at club level. That’s why I wanted to leave international from a coach point of view. To just get exposure again at club level, because it’s different.”

Although he isn’t currently operating in the test arena, Nienaber’s role with Leinster sees him working with international stars on a weekly basis. From the 35-strong squad that Ireland head coach Andy Farrell selected for their summer tour of South Africa earlier this year, 18 of them were current Leinster players.

Despite not seeing any game time across their two test battles with the Springboks, Sam Prendergast was part of the Irish set-up for their visit to the southern hemisphere in July.

In competition with the likes of Ross Byrne, his younger brother Harry and the versatile Ciaran Frawley at Leinster, there were some suggestions last season that Prendergast (who recently returned to South Africa as part of a tour with Emerging Ireland) might move to Connacht on a loan deal in order to get consistent game time in the number 10 jersey.

However, Prendergast ultimately remained with his home province and Nienaber believes his game will benefit in the long run as a result.

“I think it depends on what your ultimate goal is. If Sam’s is to represent Ireland and be the starting 10, he’s going to have to lift the players that’s in this environment anyway. You can go away and try and lift them there, or you can stay here and lift them here and lift them out of your way if that’s your goal,” Nienaber added.

“I always find it fascinating if players want to leave, but they know that their best opposition is the guys that are right here in the building. I would much rather stay here to see what they are doing and you can measure me daily against them, rather than don’t know what they are doing and what they are developing. If I was a player, I would stay as close to my closest competition as I could.”