Sexton, who explained his rivalry with O’Gara during the formative stages of his Test career was “tough”, said he is not sure if Prendergast or Crowley have been affected by the online discourse.
“Sometimes you can get a sense, but I’m not sure. All you can do is try to advise in terms of what worked for me,” added the five-time Six Nations winner.
“I was exposed to it a little bit at the very start and it’s tough, because as a kid all you want to do is play for Ireland and then you do it and suddenly you’re getting criticised – not all the time, but sometimes – and you’re like, ‘wow, this is tougher than I thought it’d be’, but it builds a resilience.
“You find out who are your mates, who you can trust and those you can lean on. Going forward, they’ll be stronger for it.”
While Sexton feels Prendergast and Crowley deserve time to prove their worth, he believes they are already ahead of where he was at the same stage of his career.
“The work ethic they have, they’re humble guys,” said Sexton, who will continue to work with Ireland’s fly-halves in a full-time capacity after he completes his British and Irish Lions coaching duties this summer.
“They want to learn and practise hard and that’s the thing you look at the most as a coach; the attitude and how humble they are because ultimately that’s what will stand to them going forward.”
