Simon Easterby backing Sam Prendergast to deliver on the road

Simon Easterby is backing Sam Prendergast to rise to the challenge in his first away trip as Ireland's out-half.

The21-year-old has got the nod over Jack Crowley to start Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations meeting with Scotland at Murrayfield (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).

Sunday’s game will be a fifth cap for the Leinster man, but just his first away from Aviva Stadium, facing a Scottish team that are looking to avenge a 10-game losing streak against Ireland.

Prendergast has faced into some famously intimidating atmospheres for Leinster in the last couple of months, helping his side win away to Munster and La Rochelle, while he also scored two tries in the province’s win at Bristol in November.

And Easterby believes those performances have shown his composure on the road.

"We saw when he left Ireland camp in November and had the opportunity to play away from home with Leinster, he handled those pretty well, didn't he?," the Ireland interim head coach said, after naming his team for Sunday.

"It's early days for him, we know that he has unbelievable talent and the expectation on him probably from himself, but also from the outside world is pretty high at the moment.

"We're trying to support him in the best way we can, to allow him keep growing, keep enjoying those experiences, learning from them, and they're not always going to be perfect. Unless you have them, you won't know how to handle them in the future."

While Prendergast will start for the fourth game in a row, the Kildare man is feeling plenty of heat behind him with the recent form of Jack Crowley.

The Munster out-half took his chance impressively when he was summoned from the bench on 58 minutes against England last week, and steered Ireland home to an ultimately comfortable