Toulouse's Daniel Brennan, son of former Ireland international Trevor, has been named in France's provisional squad for the under-20s Six Nations.
The 18-year-old prop signed a two-year development deal with his father's former club last June, having impressed during a spell with France's u17s squad a year previous. Indeed, he captained France u17s to a 28-26 victory over England in 2015, before being selected in France's 18s squad for their victorious European Championships campaign.
Brennan was also selected in FFR’s U19 ‘Pôle France’ in 2015, which is essentially a group of 23 of the most highly-rated rugby prodigies in France.
He has lived in France since he was three, and speaks fluent French.
... Mais pas Trevor, qui a beaucoup donné au club. C'est son fils Daniel qui a signé un contrat Espoir de 2 ans ;-) pic.twitter.com/wT5JVCWOhO
— Stade Toulousain (@StadeToulousain) June 3, 2016
Brennan has now been named in Gerald Bastide 30-man squad as France under-20s prepare for the Six Nations, where Daniel will hopefully line up for Les Bleuets against the country of both he and his father's birth.
The Toulouse prodigy was a beast from a young age; Brennan wrote in his 2005 ERC diary of a six-year-old Daniel's exploits in the world of judo:
The next day Daniel had his first judo championships in the village next to us, St Alban. Myself, Paula and Josh went along to it and it was great to see all the different teams of kids and how professionally it was run. Danny is only six-and-a-half but because of his size he was put in with nine and ten-year-olds. He's tall for his age, and weighs 55kgs. A future Irish prop. "I'm the second Califano," he says.
He had to compete with one eye closed because he had been fighting with the brother a few days before and still had washing up liquid in his eye. But he won a gold and a bronze. Not bad for his first competition.
In 2012 his father tweeted out the following picture, when Brennan Jr was just 14 years old. Mind you, he did stand at 6'2 and weigh 121kg at the time.
Trevor Brennan won two Heineken Cups with Toulouse following his move from Leinster in 2002, and played in three consecutive Heineken Cup finals - a sole loss to Wasps in 2004 sandwiched between victories over Perpignan and Stade Francais respectively.
He also once put a slightly smaller Daniel in the cup after leading St. Marys to AIL glory in 2000. The below picture was captured in all its wonder by Brendan Moran of Sportsfile.
He remains a club legend, and Toulouse are doubtless excited by the prospect of a second coming in due course.
