While it has been a difficult campaign for the side thus far, Kildare native Billy Bohan had been making the very most of Ireland’s journey through the 2025 edition of the U20 Six Nations Championship.

When he was named amongst the replacements for an opening round encounter with defending champions England at Virgin Media Park in Cork on January 30, Bohan was hopeful of seeing some game time off the bench. However, an injury to loosehead prop Alex Usanov – who was also part of the Ireland U20s squad in 2024 – saw him entering the fray with just 14 minutes gone on the clock.

Neil Doak’s hosts lost this encounter on a score of 19-3, but Bohan did enough to earn a starting berth in the number one jersey for a second round clash against Scotland in Edinburgh. After featuring for 67 minutes in that encounter, he also played for close to an hour in a 20-12 reversal at the hands of Wales at Rodney Parade in Newport a fortnight ago.

The continued absence of Usanov means Bohan will start his third consecutive Six Nations game for the Ireland U20s when France pays a visit to Cork this evening.

“That was a bit of a shock, coming on that early against England. It’s obviously a great opportunity for me now, getting all these minutes. Which I wouldn’t have gotten if Alex was still here. It’s a good opportunity, but obviously it’s tough for Alex that he’s not here anymore. He’s a great lad and he’s great for the team,” Bohan remarked earlier this week.

Having seemingly gotten their campaign back on track against Scotland, Bohan and his international colleagues will have been frustrated to come up short in their third round trip to Wales on February 21. Yet this evening’s game presents them with an ideal opportunity to showcase their true worth and Bohan believes a recent open training session with the Ireland senior team at the Aviva Stadium served as ideal preparation for the challenge of the French.

“Obviously against Wales we seemed to do all the hard work and then when it came down to it, we just couldn’t score. We’ve been working hard in training on execution, it’s one of the big things. We had a good session with the seniors last week. We learned a lot from that and we’re just trying to execute when we get into the ‘22’. That’s the big thing, I’d say.

“The open session in the Aviva, there was quite a big crowd there and I went up to Cian Healy after asking him about scrums. You don’t get that information anywhere else. He’s world class, so it’s a great help for us.”

Like a lot of players within this Ireland U20s set-up, Bohan’s rugby journey began as a minis rugby player – in his case at the Rosetown-based Newbridge RFC. He continued to line out in their underage ranks for a number of years, before finding himself in the Leinster schools system as a student of Newbridge College.

“I would have started minis [with Newbridge RFC], all the way up until U13s, when I joined up with Newbridge College. I played in Newbridge College then. We won the Junior Cup in TY. Then three years at Senior Cup. Great experience there, great memories made in Newbridge.”

Although Newbridge and their opponents Blackrock College had shared the previous season’s title – due to their proposed showpiece meeting being cancelled in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic – this was the school’s first standalone victory in the competition since 1950.

Joining him on this team was Sallins’ Ciaran Mangan, who is also a part of the Ireland U20s squad this year. The younger brother of Leinster forward Diarmuid – a two-time Grand Slam winner at this age grade – Mangan has played every minute of the Six Nations to date and is set to make his fourth start against France later today.

“It’s great. We’ve been playing together since first year. It’s great that me and him have come this far together,” Bohan said of Mangan.

Whereas Mangan is aiming to take the cue from his elder sibling, Bohan has looked towards another Newbridge College alum for inspiration.

After featuring extensively for the south Kildare school, Cian Prendergast went on to win a Triple Crown with the Ireland U20s in 2020. A few months later, the Suncroft man elected to join the Connacht Academy when a similar opportunity wasn’t presenting itself in Leinster.

This has proven to be a wise decision by Prendergast as he has gone on to accumulate 81 senior appearances for the westerners and has served as their club captain since the beginning of the current season.

Eager to step into a professional environment upon completing his secondary school days at Newbridge last summer, Bohan took up an offer to become a Year One Academy player at Connacht – along with current Ireland U20s skipper Eanna McCarthy.

“For him [Prendergast], he didn’t get picked for Leinster Academy, so he took his chance out in Connacht. It has worked out really well for him. I kind of followed that route. I think this is a good pathway to get into the senior squad, so that is why I thought I’d chance my arm there,” Bohan added.