WHILE THE EXPLOITS of Andy Farrell’s senior side have grabbed most of the attention in recent weeks, Daniel Ryan and the Ireland U20s have been enjoying their own interesting journey in the Six Nations this year.

In a similar vein to the men’s senior team, Andrew Browne’s underage outfit began their 2026 Championship odyssey with a comprehensive defeat at the hands of France in Perpignan on 7 February.

Yet, in much the same way as Farrell’s men have gotten themselves back up the Six Nations ladder, the U20s have gained serious momentum with consecutive bonus point victories at the expense of Italy, England and Wales.

Wins over the latter two sides has them in the reckoning for a Triple Crown success ahead of their final round showdown with Scotland at Virgin Media Park in Cork on Sunday. This represents significant progress since that opening day loss to France, but as former St Michael’s College star Ryan explains, that maiden battle with the tournament’s defending champions did provide something of a template for what was to follow.

“We spoke after the France game how it was obviously a really disappointing result, but there was definitely elements in the game where we were like ‘okay, some of our attack does look really good and there’s definitely the building blocks there for a really good campaign’,” Ryan remarked in a video call on Wednesday.

“We kind of had a brief chat on the pitch after the game, where we were like ‘right, that’s a once off, that doesn’t happen again. Let’s just look forward, play it moment by moment for the rest of the campaign’. That’s what we’ve done. We’ve really turned it around and been able to just build on the performances, week by week.”

Throughout this year’s campaign, Ryan has been a ubiquitous presence in the Irish back-three alongside Derry Moloney and Noah Byrne. He was joined on the scoresheet by Moloney and Byrne in the wins over Italy and England respectively, before bringing his Championship tally up to four tries with an impressive brace in a player of the match display against Wales last Saturday.

In addition to rounding off a fine team move for Ireland’s opening score of the game, Ryan also claimed a superb breakaway try after intercepting a Welsh pass close to his own posts in the 55th minute of an often frantic encounter. This helped to make it a very satisfying evening on the Leeside for the Dubliner, but he is very quick to deflect praise away from himself and instead wax lyrical about the work ethic of his team-mates.

“I was delighted with the performance, but it all kind of comes on the back of the work that everyone else is doing as well as me. It might be an individual acknowledgement at the end, but within the group we all know how important everyone’s role is.

“You mentioned the interception, that doesn’t happen if the forwards don’t do an unbelievable job in the maul and bring it down. We all kind of work as a unit and make each other look good. It’s one of our principles.”

It would cap off a fine campaign for Byrne and the Ireland U20s if they were to end this year’s Championship with a Triple Crown to their name – something the senior side are also hoping to accomplish at the very least in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

It has also been a highly productive season on the provincial front for Byrne, who joined the Connacht Academy last summer after previously coming through the Leinster schools system with the aforementioned St Michael’s.

Less than two months after turning 19, Ryan made his first-team debut for Connacht on the right-wing in a 29-24 defeat to interprovincial rivals Ulster in the United Rugby Championship at Dexcom Stadium on 27 December of last year. This saw him featuring in the same starting line-up as full internationals like Finlay Bealham, Cian Prendergast, Bundee Aki and Jack Carty.

Unsurprisingly, in spite of the final result, it proved to be a dream occasion for Ryan in the Galway venue.

“It was a really special moment for me. All the lads are so supportive and all week in training when I kind of got the nod. Obviously there’s a huge amount of emotion that came with that, but the lads kind of assured me,” Ryan added.

“Cian Prendergast, Jack Carty, they were just the whole week ‘you’re more than able for this, you’ve been picked based on what you’re doing in training’. They were just really supportive all week and made me really believe that I could do it. The older lads have been such a good help to me just throughout my time in Connacht. I couldn’t thank them enough.”