A Champions Cup Round of 16 knockout tie will pit Munster’s current attack coach Prendergast against La Rochelle’s head coach O’Gara, three decades on from the former’s earliest memory of the latter. "It was when I played in a Senior Cup final against him, when I was in Crescent and he was in Pres,” Prendergast said of the fly-half who became his Munster squad-mate, friend and now coaching rival. “We lost the final to them. And there was a bit before that as well, playing schools, but that really stood out… ‘95. “So Wally (David Wallace) and myself would have played together and then went on to play for Munster, and on the other side you had (Peter) Stringer on the bench, Mick O'Driscoll played, Anthony Horgan and Rog. Yeah, 1995, in Musgrave Park. 14-7. We missed 11 kicks. "There was a wind that day, yeah. 11 or 9, one or the other.” Prendergast was quick to deny he was not on goal-kicking duties that day, though those players that were are still reminded of the day. "No, I wasn't! We have a schools WhatsApp, a 1995 WhatsApp group and the two boys who missed the kicks still get hammered. You'd always remember it." Opposing sides then and now but he and O’Gara are like-minded coaches who speak to each other regularly, and not just small talk. "I spoke to him yesterday. I'd speak to him two or three times during the week, we'd always chat… we'll keep going. "We would (think similarly), absolutely. And he’s a great sounding board. The thing is, look, we played together. We wouldn’t have been very, very tight when we played together. It was more when we got into the coaching side of it. “I obviously played nine and he played 10, and we would have had a relationship, but it wouldn’t be as strong until we went to France. We both went there in 2013 – I went to Grenoble, he went to Racing. “It was around then that the rugby relationship grew. He’s a great sounding board and likewise. As I said to him there recently, I know they are losing a few games at the moment but as a coach, he’s probably just always had success, you need to go through a bit of that. “I had a lot of that in my early days in Grenoble and Oyonnax. But I have no doubt that he’s the type of person and coach that will find a solution but like I said, hopefully not this weekend.” Their friendship will not dim the competitive juices in either man and asked if it would be nice to get one over on O’Gara, Prendergast replied: "Oh yeah, absolutely. 100 per cent.” He accepted La Rochelle were potentially at a low ebb after a run of poor form in the Top 14 but that Munster did not want to present the opportunity for O’Gara to start turning things around for his club. “They're at home, they're probably feeling that pain. La Rochelle is a small town, you don't get away from it there. As I said to the boys, we, don't want to be the team to give them that confidence so for us, coming off the last week's performance, and as said, even the previous week, there was a lot of good in it as well, so it's really set up.” Prendergast was speaking for the first time since he learned he would not be getting his wish to become Munster’s next permanent head coach, with New Zealander Clayton McMillan named to take over this summer, with the attack coach getting added responsibility in a newly created role as senior coach. “As I said from day one when the opportunity to put my name into the hat was there, I’d be very honest and straight about it, yeah I was very disappointed that I didn’t get the job. “But in this type of job you can’t sit around and feel sorry for yourself either. You’ve just got to get back up on the horse straight away. “It’s not now when it’s going to happen but hopefully down in the future and look, meeting with Clayton last week and sat down with him, and I sat down with a few people in the club as well, to explain what their vision is going forward and what not, you get over it quite quickly. That’s the reality. “But I was disappointed when I initially heard it. I think that’s human nature in any job, if you go for a job and didn’t get it, but as I said I managed to park that disappointment and there’s a lot going on at the moment so that kind of keeps your mind off it in a good way as well, and as I said speaking to Clayton was good and there’s good alignment there.”