IN HIS FINAL  warm-up appearance before being officially named in the Ireland U20s squad for the forthcoming Six Nations, Ciaran Mangan found himself pitched into battle against a member of his own household.

The older brother of Ciaran, Diarmuid Mangan was part of the Irish squads that won back-to-back Championship Grand Slams at the U20 international grade in 2022 and 2023.

Although he has already made five senior appearances for the eastern province – including starts against Ulster and Connacht towards the tail end of 2024 – he was selected on a Leinster Development XV that played the Ireland U20s in a friendly encounter at Energia Park a little under a fortnight ago.

Whereas Diarmuid was amongst the Leinster pack, younger sibling Ciaran donned the number 11 jersey for his opponents. While the roles they took on for their respective teams meant they didn’t have a face-to-face showdown during the game, it was an interesting occasion nonetheless for the Mangans.

Ireland Rugby Under 20 Six Nations Squad Announcement, PwC Offices, Dublin Michael Foy, Head Coach Neil Doak, Henry Walker, Marie Coady, PwC Markets Partner, Ciarán Mangan with IRFU President Declan Madden and Éanna McCarthy. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“I don’t think Diarmuid was initially meant to be playing, but a few injuries came and he was in. We were playing against each other, but I know one of the other brothers Ruben and Derry [Moloney], they had a few match-ups,” Ciaran explained at an Ireland U20s squad announcement at the PwC headquarters in Dublin on Tuesday.

“Me and Diarmuid didn’t really get to have any. He was lurking out on the wing a few times and I was thinking ‘hopefully he doesn’t get the ball here’. He was good, in fairness.”

Before progressing up the underage international ladder, the Mangan brothers shone brightly at junior and senior cup level with Newbridge College – located a little under 10 miles from their hometown of Sallins in Kildare.

This is also the alma mater of Cian and Sam Prendergast, both of whom the Mangans were quite close to in their childhoods.

Having previously played against each other in the colours of Connacht and Leinster, the Prendergasts finally got a chance to play on the same team when Ireland faced Fiji in the Autumn Nations Series at the Aviva Stadium last November.

Given he and his brother have ambitions to make a significant splash in the professional game, seeing Sam and Cian as part of the same Ireland senior set-up is a great source of encouragement for Mangan.

 “We’d be family friends with them as well, so we kind of knew them when we were younger. Obviously those two have been doing class. It’s class to see them making their cap together and playing together.”

A Junior Cup winner with Newbridge in 2021, Mangan subsequently enjoyed three successive campaigns in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup. His coach during this period was Johne Murphy, who also attended Newbridge as a student before going on to have a career in professional rugby with Leicester Tigers and Munster.

Though he has been featuring in the back-three more recently, Mangan played a lot of his schools rugby at outside centre. Given he was known as a versatile back in his own playing days, Murphy was ideally placed in his role as Newbridge senior coach to help Mangan develop his game.

“In junior cup we didn’t have him [Murphy], but then as soon as I went into TY, we had him for the cup teams. In fairness, he taught us loads. He obviously has loads of experience himself, playing for Munster. I had him for fourth year, fifth year and sixth year, so I was always picking his brains on different ideas.

“I was always kind of a centre in Naas [rugby club] and then when I went into Newbridge, I was centre in first year. Then I played number 9 a year in second year for the junior cup team. I was a bit smaller and then in fourth year I played on the wing. In fifth year and sixth year, I played centre again for the cup team. All over the place.”

Yet despite beginning up in Naas RFC at just four or five years of age in their minis section, rugby wasn’t necessarily always going to be the main sporting pursuit for Mangan as he also played extensively for Sallins in both Gaelic football and hurling at underage level.

However, as time went by, he began to apply a serious focus to rugby and eventually decided to place GAA on the back burner.

“I played hurling and football all the way up, since I was younger. I was always kind of balancing two. You play rugby on a Saturday morning and then you go off to a game at two o’clock and you play Gaelic or hurling,” Mangan added.

“I never really knew which sport I preferred until I went on. I started focusing on the rugby more when I got into the later stages of Newbridge with senior cup. I had to give the hurling and football up unfortunately.”

That said, when you consider he is in the frame to feature against England in a packed-out Virgin Media Park in Ireland’s U20s Six Nations opener on Thursday, 30 January, this is a move that looks like it is currently paying off for Mangan.