HE WAS AN integral part of a group that successfully defended the title last year, but Brian Gleeson has insisted the prospect of securing a third successive Grand Slam hasn’t been discussed amongst the 2024 edition of the Ireland U20s.

After watching on from afar as the best young talent across the four provinces enjoyed a clean sweep of Six Nations U20s honours in 2022, Gleeson featured in all five games as Ireland repeated this feat 12 months later. A regular presence in the number eight jersey, Gleeson contributed four tries for Richie Murphy’s side during their winning run of 2023 – including a brace in the Grand Slam clincher over England at Musgrave Park.

Yet as he is one of just five players from last year’s Six Nations squad to be returning for underage international duty, the Tipperary native hasn’t looked beyond this Saturday’s Championship opener against France in Aix-en-Provence.

“We haven’t spoken about a third Grand Slam in a row. That has never once come up in a meeting for us,” Gleeson explained in a media call yesterday.

“Obviously that is the goal, to win a Grand Slam. That is every team’s goal, to go in and do that. I know it’s a cliché, but you have to take it one game at a time and that’s what we’re going to do.”

While a penalty from Sam Prendergast helped them to edge out France at Musgrave Park in the second round of last year’s Six Nations, the Ireland U20s had a more disappointing outing against Les Bleuets a few months later. In the World Rugby U20 Championship decider in Cape Town in July, the concession of 40 unanswered points ultimately saw the Irish falling short on a final score of 50-14.

Now, having faced them on both home soil and neutral territory to date, this weekend will see Gleeson taking on the French in their own backyard. Given how much the Irish crowd got behind him and his colleagues in Cork when the two teams met in the 2023 Six Nations, this is something he feels Ireland will need to deal with over the course of their latest duel.

“In the Six Nations last year we had a yellow card, but we stuck in that fight. We had the home crowd behind us which obviously helped, but if we can stick together as a team… That is what we were talking about all week, sticking together as a team.

“With the French crowd as well, 10 odd thousand people, it gets noisy. If something does go wrong, if they score an early try, it’s about us getting back in the game.

“Playing away from home in an environment like that, it is easy for a game to get away. It is up to us that we settle well and bring the game to them.”

Whereas the French U20s have a series of players within their ranks that have seen game time in the Top 14, Gleeson is amongst a select group in the Ireland set-up to have sampled life in professional club rugby to date.

Aside from the former Rockwell College student, his Munster compatriot Ben O’Connor and Ulster’s Joe Hopes also picked up caps with their respective provinces in advance of joining the Irish camp for the 2024 Six Nations.

Although O’Connor has enjoyed four outings with the same outfit – and Hopes appeared in Ulster’s interprovincial showdown with Connacht in November of last year – Gleeson has clocked up an impressive nine appearances for Graham Rowntree’s senior team in Munster.

This included no fewer than three run-outs in the pool stages of the European Champions Cup and even though he is still awaiting a first start for the southern province, his level of involvement has been far greater than he had originally anticipated.

“I certainly didn’t expect to be playing European rugby at the start of the season, but I’ve loved it and I’ve learned a lot from it. I played in Exeter, Toulon and Thomond Park [against Northampton Saints]. All different atmospheres, you learn a lot from it,” Gleeson said of his recent appearances for Munster.

“You mature as a player and so does your overall game, because you’re playing against some of the best players in the world, full internationals.

I grew up watching Munster in the Champions Cup, so getting to represent Munster in the Champions Cup is fantastic. The roar that Thomond gives on a European Champions Cup Day is class. To be able to say I’ve experienced it, it doesn’t let you down.”

Daire Walsh