ALMOST A YEAR on from his debut at the grade, Tom Wood believes he has returned for another season with the Ireland Men’s U20s as a different player.

A current member of the Munster Academy, Wood made his competitive U20s bow for Ireland off the bench against Wales in the third round of the Six Nations Championship last February. He went on to make starts at out-half against both France and Italy in the same tournament, scoring a final-quarter try in the latter game.

While Ireland finished last year’s U20s Six Nations at the foot of the table – and had to be content with 11th spot at the World Rugby U20 Championships a few months later – Wood will nonetheless be hoping to benefit from this exposure to underage international rugby.

Along with Donnacha McGuire, Derry Moloney and Charlie Molony, he is one of four returning players in this year’s Ireland squad for the forthcoming U20s Six Nations, and the man from the southern province acknowledged he has been taking on greater responsibility with the 2026 group.

“I think the main difference, and I’m trying to influence this, is that more of a leadership role on the team. Especially being a year young last year, I probably didn’t drive the standards enough.

“I wasn’t as demanding as I think I could have been last year,” Wood said at the Ireland U20s Six Nations squad announcement at PwC’s headquarters in Dublin earlier today.

“Coming in this year, I just think I need to drive that up another step and make sure I’m demanding standards of the players around me. Demanding the ball more and being more of a leader on and off the pitch, I think. That will stand to me and it will stand to the team, I think, throughout the year. So that’s pretty much the difference.”

As was the case when he featured for the side last year, there will be plenty of interest in how Wood performs in the coming weeks. Not just in Munster, but across the country as well.

First noted as a prospect at St Munchin’s College in Limerick and with Ballina-Killaloe RFC at club level, Tom is the son of former Ireland captain Keith Wood.

Considering his father also represented Munster, Harlequins and the British & Irish Lions during a memorable career in professional rugby, Tom doesn’t have far to look for guidance as he attempts to navigate his way through the oval ball game.

Yet even though Keith regularly watches Tom playing alongside his brothers Gordon (also part of the Munster Academy) and Alex with Garryowen in the All-Ireland League, he tries to keep his distance as much as possible.

“He’s pretty tame. He likes us to figure it out on our own. He is very good for those insights that you wouldn’t really get off anyone else, really. He still sees the game pretty well, more than a lot of people. He is good for those little bits of feedback, that you mightn’t have even thought about, after the game,” Wood said of his father.

“He does his best to stay chilled. Every now and again when he decides to shout, he is the one voice that you’ll hear. He just goes there in the paddy cap, stays low key. Just there to watch us.”

Like their senior counterparts, the Ireland U20s will begin their Six Nations campaign in 2026 with a tricky away assignment against France – at Stade Aime Giral in Perpignan on Saturday, 7 February to give precise details of their tournament opener.

There will also be three home games at Virgin Media Park in Cork with Italy (13 February), Wales (7 March) and Scotland (15 March), in addition to a visit to The Rec in Bath on 20 February to face 10-time champions England.

While Ireland are facing a daunting opening round fixture against the tournament’s title holders a little over a fortnight from now, Wood is confident Andrew Browne’s side have it within themselves to pull a result out of the bag.

“That’s going to be a very hard test. It always is, it’s going to be really tough. It’s going to be a physical game, but I feel like we’re prepping really well. We’re building each camp really well and it will be a big tell on how the Six Nations will go, that game,” Wood added.

“We’ve played them previously at 18s. They gave us a bit of a hiding, but the lads went over last year at 19s and beat them. I think if we put the prep in, put the work in now, which we have been doing, and just keep building on that, I think we can beat them.”