{"id":428184,"date":"2026-05-02T05:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/428184\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T05:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:31:13","slug":"daniel-brennan-has-made-a-circuitous-route-to-the-top-level-of-european-rugby-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/428184\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Brennan has made a circuitous route to the top level of European rugby \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

At some point in Toulon\u2019s Champions Cup<\/a> semi-final against Leinster<\/a> the 27-year-old Daniel Brennan will be brought on to play his first game in the Aviva Stadium. He will thus complete one of the more circuitous nostalgic return journeys to the ground.<\/p>\n

Brennan has been in the stadium before, in its guise as the old Lansdowne Road. He was just four years old when his father Trevor brought him on to the pitch to join in the Toulouse celebrations after they had beaten Perpignan 23-17 in the 2003 Heineken Cup final. <\/p>\n

He has no recollections of the day, but has seen the photos and ditto his previous venture on to the pitch in May 2000 but, again, the vibes are positive. That day his dad was captain and man of the match when St Mary\u2019s beat Lansdowne 25-22 in the AIL final.<\/p>\n

Brennan was still four months shy of his second birthday when photographed in the AIL trophy. \u201cHe looked about six,\u201d says Trevor, and jokes: \u201cHe was eating roast beef dinners at that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Trevor joined Toulouse and he and Paula moved there in 2002, the eldest of the Brennans was only three, and sibling Josh a baby, with Bobby Valentine still to arrive. Josh has won three caps for France, and also two Champions Cups and four French Championships with Toulouse, while Bobby is in the Toulouse esports.<\/p>\n

Brennan has kept his Dublin accent and is proud to be Irish-born but has always regarded himself as French. He initially did judo and played hockey, but at 10 a mate suggested rugby, so he joined Aucamville, near the family\u2019s home suburb of Castelginest.<\/p>\n

At 14, Brennan was picked for a regional selection in national trials, which led to an offer to play with Toulouse. Selected for the French Under-16s, Brennan tore his hamstring the day before the squad left on tour. But the following year he played for the France Under-17s, Under-18s and Under-19s.<\/p>\n

In 2017-18 he was part of the French Under-20s\u2019 34-24 win over Ireland in Donnybrook, captaining the side in two games en route to winning the Six Nations, as well as winning an Under-20s World Cup winners medal, when a replacement in the 33-15 win over England in the final.<\/p>\n

After just one appearance for Toulouse, Brennan accepted a two-year deal from Vern Cotter with Montpellier before his 20th birthday, but was restricted to six games there, suffering a broken ankle and tearing a hamstring off the bone.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Davidson brought him to Brive for four seasons, the first three in the Top 14 and the last in the ProD2 when he sustained a ruptured bicep tendon.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrive was brilliant for him. He loved it, absolutely loved it, great bunch of lads. The only reason he left was because the offer came in from Toulon. I just said to him: \u2018Listen Dan, I know you\u2019re happy in Brive, but if you have an opportunity to play Top 14, and play at the highest level, just go for it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite competition from French international looseheads in Jean-Baptiste Gros and Dany Priso, this will be Brennan\u2019s 37th game for Toulon.<\/p>\n

\u201cInjuries have played a big part in his career but I think he\u2019s back at his strongest now. This has been his best year for rugby since 2018,\u201d ventures his father, who adds that at 27 his eldest is still \u201ca baby\u201d by prop standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s down from 135kg to 128kg, he does his job in the scrums, he\u2019s mobile, has good hands and his best years are still ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with no offer from Toulon a few months ago, Brennan accepted a two-year deal to join Montauban despite their relegation from the Top 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to be closer to home, and Montauban is only 40 kilometres up the road,\u201d explains Trevor. \u201cHe\u2019s been away for nine years, commuting and missing Christmases and birthdays and his mother, and her curries and her dinners. Without Paula, there\u2019d be nothing. Put that in. According to Wikipedia, the boys have no mother!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trevor and Paula will be among the extended family and Leixlip clan in the stands today.<\/p>\n

\u201cToulon weren\u2019t favourites in Glasgow, they are not favourites going here either, but again I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll take a backward step. They\u2019ll throw the kitchen sink at Leinster, as will Leinster at them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At some point in Toulon\u2019s Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster the 27-year-old Daniel Brennan will be brought on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1399,61,60,11287,112,63463],"class_list":["post-428184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aviva-stadium","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-sports","tag-the-counter-ruck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}