It's early days in the story of Sam Prendergast, early enough that it could still go either way, but the one certainty about the 21-year-old is that he has out-half energy.
Johnny Sexton had it, Jack Crowley has it, and pretty much everyone who has made it to the professional game with the number 10 on their back has had it; that feeling that they’re the most important person in the room.
Anything you hear from Prendergast’s team-mates and coaches comes back to his confidence; his willingness to take a risk on the pitch, and how assured he is at running the week behind the scenes.
With all that said, even the most confident of out-halves will feel the nerves in the moments before their Test debut.
"It was kind of surreal. The whole week really," Prendergast says, as he reflects on his Ireland debut against Argentina last week.
"From when I got named in the team, having the family come into the Shelbourne and then having Cian [his brother] in camp, it was a special thing. Then getting to play in a full Aviva and getting to sing the national anthems for the first time… It was a nervous week but quite surreal."
Being able to share the moment with his brother Cian was equally special.
The Connacht captain presented his younger brother with his jersey on the Wednesday night before the game, and the pair should get to play together for the first time in their professional careers this afternoon against Fiji, with Sam starting at out-half and back row Cian set to feature off the bench.
"It was a bit emotional at the time. I didn’t really know who was going to present it to me until the time," he said.
"It was a weird one and having all my family there as well then, a few of them had a few tears. It was very special."
Having emerged as a schools prospect with Newbridge College, Prendergast was one of the stars of the Ireland Under-20 side that won the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2023, before they went on to reach the final of the World Rugby U20 Championship that summer.
The 21-year-old already has a reputation as a risk-taker, particularly around his kicking game where he is consistently looking to catch defences off guard with chips and grubbers into the corners, and that style of freewheeling rugby isn't a surprise when he lists off his influences growing up.
"The obvious one is probably Johnny [Sexton], then Danny Cipriani, Quade Cooper, Damian McKenzie," he said.
"They’re the ones that I just enjoyed watching when I was younger, the way they played. I still watch them a good bit and try to take ideas off them.
"It is a work in progress but a lot of it comes naturally to me when we’re on the training field and in matches.
"It’s just maybe the odd kick…I don’t know…a few spirals…I maybe try a few things. Some days it doesn’t really go to plan, a wet and windy day and nothing comes off you walk off the pitch a bit dejected and other days a lot of it comes off. That’s part of the learning as well.
"Then, when you get to play games it’s fun because you get to, not experiment, but you get to see what different things from the training pitch can translate into in matches."
And for now, at least, it doesn’t look like his natural instincts are going to be coached out of him, with Andy Farrell encouraging him to build on top of the game he has, rather than change it.
"He just said to be myself really," said Prendergast.
"Just to trust what I had done to get this far and try and be the best of myself. That’s what I tried to do when I played like, just put the few nerves behind me.
"There’s stuff that probably got you picked into camp but you are also constantly trying to get better at other things, defence, kicking.
"You are never really, 'ah I’m pretty good at everything’. You are constantly working on something. That’s what makes it quite exciting, you are constantly trying to get better at different things.
"I don’t think there is any player in the world that ticks every box. It’s trying to tick as many boxes as you can."
One area that some believe he needs to develop is his physicality.
At 6ft 4in, the Kildare man is tall and rangy, as out-half's go, but some pundits have questioned whether he yet has the weight to fill out that frame if he is to be effective in defence.
That hypothesis was put to Prendergast (below) when he spoke to the media earlier this week, and the Leinster man bristled at the suggestion he is too "slight" for Test rugby.
"I definitely think I can get better at it. ‘Slight’? I think that's a bit harsh, I'm just quite tall," he added, as he slowly and repeatedly tapped his heel into the ground.
"I could definitely put on a bit of size. I'm not in a huge rush to do that. I think I'm decently heavy for the position I play.
"I'm definitely trying to get better at my defence. I've been working with coaches in Leinster and Ireland about it.
"I think Jack [Crowley] has defended very well over the first couple of games, Johnny [Sexton] was a great defender, people who I look up to like Owen Farrell, great defender. It's obviously a huge part of the game.
"You spend half the game without the ball. You've got to be very good at it. I am really trying to get better at it.
"I think the ‘slight’ thing is a bit harsh."
