'Strong defence has to be top of the requirement list for Sunday' says Ireland U20 star Daniel Ryan
Daniel Ryan makes a break towards the end line during the match between Ireland and Wales at Virgin Media Park. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
An U20s Six Nations Triple Crown is the target for free-scoring Ireland in their final game of the 2026 championship when Scotland visit Virgin Media Park on Sunday (3.15pm k/o) but Daniel Ryan knows just how important defensive steel will be to finish the campaign on a high.
The Connacht academy wing from Leinster schools heavyweights Blackrock College has been in flying form for his country, scoring tries in each of Ireland’s three consecutive victories since their opening-round loss in France.
His double against Wales in last Saturday’s 48-33 victory earned him player of the match honours in Cork, with an 80-metre intercept showcasing Ryan’s speed and stamina halfway through the second half. It was Ireland’s sixth of seven tries on the night and yet despite their 18 tries to date, Andrew Browne’s side have a points difference of minus one and a strong defence has to be at the top of the requirement list for Sunday’s performance according to the team’s joint-leading try scorer.
“We say every week that the cornerstone of everything we do is our physicality and how connected we can be on defence,” Ryan said. We know Scotland are a really good team who are going to come gunning for a result on Sunday. It's really important that we know they're a team that loves to throw the ball around.
So before we can kind of focus on anything that we want to do, we have to be able to shut them down first and foremost. So yeah, defensive performance is a huge priority this weekend. In the Wales game, we definitely had moments where our defence wasn't what we wanted it to be.
“This week in camp, we'll be looking at that. So yeah, defensive performance is a top priority.” Ryan is proud of the Ireland players for the way they responded to that opening 50-21 defeat in Perpignan and said: “We spoke about 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 tackles look really good and there's definitely the building blocks there for a really good campaign.
“So we kind of had a brief chat on the pitch after the game where we were like, ‘right, that's a one-off, that doesn't happen again, and let's just look forward, play moment by moment for the rest of the campaign’.
“And that's what we've done and we've really turned it around and been able to just build on the performances week by week.”
Head coach Browne has made just two changes, both in the forward pack for this final match of the 2026 campaign. Hooker Duinn Maguire is promoted to starter after a try-scoring impact off the bench against Wales, while Donnacha McGuire is restored to the second row. The unchanged backline means a further opportunity for Ryan and his colleagues to express themselves with ball in hand.
“Fluidity in our back line is something that we kind of strive for every week and it is coming out and we're moving the ball really well and it's just such a satisfying thing to be a part of a team that moves the ball as well as we've been doing,” the wing said.
“Huge credit to the lads in the centre and Woody (Tom Wood) at 10. Yeah, we've been just so lucky to be able to play the way we've been playing.
“Everyone's really excited. We've kind of built on our performances throughout the Six Nations. We think we've definitely grown into the competition as a group and we're just absolutely buzzing to kind of finish it off on a high, trying to get a good result on Sunday and just finish it off as a group on a good note.”
N Byrne (Dublin University/Leinster), D Moloney (Blackrock College/Leinster), R Carney (Cashel/Munster), J O’Leary (UCC/Munster), D Ryan (Galway Corinthians/Connacht); T Wood (Garryowen/Munster), C Barrett (UCC/Munster); M Doyle (UCD/Leinster), D Maguire (UCD/Leinster), S Bishti (UCD/Leinster) - captain; J Finn (Garryowen/Munster), D McGuire (UCD/Leinster); J Neill (Old Wesley/Leinster), B Blaney (Terenure College/Leinster), D O’Connell (Galway Corinthians/Connacht).
L Fitzpatrick (Blackrock College/Leinster), C Foley (Young Munster/Munster), L Murtagh (Galwegians/Connacht), D McNeice (UCD/Leinster), B Hayes (Garryowen/Munster), J O’Dwyer (Old Belvedere/Leinster), C O’Shea (UCC/Munster), J O’Sullivan (Dublin University/Leinster).
H Widdowson (Edinburgh); N Moncrieff (Edinburgh), C Waugh (Glasgow Hawks), H Clark (Watsonian), R McHaffie (Edinburgh); J Dalziel (Melrose), A McKenzie (Watsonian); O McKenna (Glasgow Warriors), J Roberts – captain (Glasgow Warriors), J Stewart (Edinburgh); A Blackett (Cardiff Metropolitan University), D Halkon (Glasgow Warriors); A Appleby (Northampton Saints), J Utterson (Edinburgh), R Purvis (Glasgow Warriors).
J McAughtrie (Ayr), W Pearce (CMU/Bristol Bears), J Rennie (Glasgow Warriors), F Ronnie (Watsonian), C Lindsay (Edinburgh), H Preston (Glasgow Hawks), H MacArthur (Edinburgh), H Armstrong (Stirling County).
David Vosalevu (Fiji).
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