Ireland great lashes out at ‘sickening’ Sam Prendergast treatment as Glasgow targeted ‘weak link’

Donncha O’Callaghan is desperately hoping that Glasgow Warriors get their comeuppance following their antics in the victory over Leinster last weekend.

The former Ireland lock went on an epic rant on The Offload podcast about the behaviour of the Glasgow players in the United Rugby Championship clash.

Despite it being almost a week after the game, O’Callaghan was still fuming and believes that it will come back to bite the Warriors.

It takes a lot for a Munster legend to stick up for his Leinster counterparts, but the 47-year-old was decidedly not impressed by the Scottish outfit.

“There’s something I’m starting to like about Scotland but that’s definitely not the case for Glasgow, I couldn’t believe the way they conducted themselves,” the 98-times capped ex-international said.

“It just got me thinking, they’re going to come up against Leinster in the business end and I would have every one of those clips, I would have every word stored and ready to go.

“Honestly, I just think they’re an awful shower of p*****.”

What made O’Callaghan angry

It was not necessarily ill-tempered between the teams but it was certainly tense and that spilt over towards the end when Glasgow fly-half Adam Hastings ruffled the hair of his opposite number Sam Prendergast following a try.

That sparked a fracas between the teams with former Glasgow and Scotland playmaker Duncan Weir, who was acting as the hosts’ waterboy, also getting involved.

Hastings was yellow-carded for instigating the incident but that did not dampen his spirits as he was seen smiling and applauding the crowd as he left the field.

“Even Duncan Weir, who’s on the water. Great player in his time but know your role… it sickened me, it really did,” O’Callaghan said.

“I see that coming round. If you look at Leinster’s road to Europe, they have Edinburgh, they could possibly have Harlequins and then they could meet Glasgow in a semi-final.

“With all that hurt and all that in it, I think Leinster could absolutely bop them and in fact I half hope it.”

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Glasgow seemed to target Prendergast throughout the game and that particularly irked O’Callaghan, with the lock saying: “That’s what sickened me about that because we’ve all been there and we know it’s confidence, and when your confidence goes it is shattering.

“That’s where your good team-mates and even your just fellow pros are just decent, and I didn’t see a whole lot of decency there towards Sam by Glasgow.”

O’Callaghan was joined on The Offload by fellow ex-Ireland international Tommy Bowe, who did take issue with the Munsterman over his stance.

Bowe claimed that it was “a bit rich coming from you” given that “Munster were renowned for this, you were renowned for going up and rubbing the head, rubbing it in.”

O’Callaghan disagreed, however, responding: “I never felt it was pick on the weak link. This in my own opinion, we went at everyone the same.”

Bowe then asked: “But if you spotted a weak link?” to which the former lock replied: “You would definitely try and exploit it and go for it, 100 per cent. [But] I know if someone carrying water onto our pitch would have a pop at someone like that, every one of the players would have pulled their head in.”

Compared to Gavin Coombes moment

O’Callaghan then compared Hastings’ response to getting sin-binned to Gavin Coombes, who smiled and pumped his fist at the Munster supporters during their clash with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in October.

Like Glasgow, who claimed a 38-17 victory at Scotstoun last weekend, Munster were comfortably ahead when Coombes was yellow-carded.

“I even go back to Gavin Coombes coming off the pitch. I know that would have been self-policed in our environment,” he said.

“Doing that in front of Declan Kidney, Jerry Holland, Niall O’Donovan, any of those people, you get to that sideline… they would be highly embarrassed by conducting yourself that way.

“There was a lack of empathy there for Sam, it was like, ‘burn him’. Adam Hastings, you’ve been there before as well, man. I remember him being a kid playing for Bath where everyone was looking to exploit him.

“You’re actually involved in his development and making him better. I’ve always found it with them anyway.”

O’Callaghan added: “You’re right, people will probably say the same about us, but I don’t think it was done the same [way].

“It’s like Saracens celebrating your mistake but I always felt we celebrated our team-mate doing something brilliant. If you poached the ball, I got excited, whereas it you dropped the ball, they got excited and that is the different in terms of mindset.

“They’ve got absolute fuel and you know that’s fuel. Genuinely, what Glasgow did there, I’m telling you, they’re going to get a bopping for that along the line and they deserve every bit of it, and I can’t wait to see it.”

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