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29 Sept 2025
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29 Sept 2025
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Photo from 2024: Connacht players Fiachna Barrett, left, and Seán Naughton during the EPCR Challenge Cup Round 1 match between Connacht and Zebre Parma at Dexcom Stadium in Galway. Pic: Sportsfile
IT was a moment to behold for a young promising rugby talent from Mayo. When Fiachna Barrett entered the pitch in the second half, a Connacht victory over Benetton Treviso was anything but certain.
The Geesala man raised the roof when he touched the ball down for a try in the 67th minute, which would have been the icing on the cake for the 22-year-old Mayo man.
To score on their senior debut is something every sport person dreams of. Unfortunately, it was chalked off due to a double movement by Barrett. But the young prop impressed nevertheless on his first match in the United Rugby Championship. Only five minutes later he assisted the decisive try from Seán Jansen with a pop pass off a ruck.
Connacht eventually came out on top against a Benetton Treviso team star-studded with Italian internationals like Michele Lamaro and Tommaso Menoncello.
Fiachna Barrett has seen a rise in his fortunes lately since the arrival of new Connacht head coach Stuart Lancaster. The writings were already on the wall, when Barrett was included as one of three players to stay on for year three of the Connacht Rugby Academy in June.
And later in August, Barrett got game time in a pre-season friendly against Bristol. The big man has always been an exceptional sporting talent, as a successful boxer, soccer player and rower, but rugby was his thing.
In an interview with The Mayo News earlier this year, Barrett explained: “I just fell in love with rugby straight away. You meet friends for life. For example, I still play with Harry West. He was there when I had my first rugby session in Ballina as a boy, and we’re together here in the Connacht Academy now.”
READ NEXT: Junior 1A Rugby Preview: Familiar faces look towards a bright future?
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