Ross Byrne will join Gloucester from next season onwards after agreeing a three-year deal with the Premiership club. The 29-year-old Leinster and Ireland outhalf had attracted interest from England and France, with firm offers from Leicester Tigers and Montpellier, but has opted for the West Country club.
Byrne will thus end a 10-season career with Leinster having joined his hometown provincial academy from the St Michael’s, during which time he has played 177 times and accumulated 1,156 points. This makes him Leinster’s third highest points scorer of all time behind Johnny Sexton and Felipe Contepomi.
He played a leading role in Leinster’s four Pro 14 titles in succession, as well as helping them to their 2018 Champions Cup success and reaching the last three finals.
Who has been added to Ireland’s Six Nations squad and why?
Superb at running a team and a wonderful goalkicker, Byrne won the first of his 22 senior caps for Ireland against Italy in Chicago in November 2018. Perhaps his finest moment was ending an absence of one year and 18 months from the international team when being promoted from 24th man to replacement outhalf against Australia in November 2022 in the warm-up. True to form, Byrne came on in the 71st minute and nailed an angled 45-metre penalty to win the match.
He was subsequently part of Ireland’s 2023 Grand Slam-winning team and World Cup squad, but after playing the second half of the pool win over Tonga, in which he landed four conversions, Byrne fell down the international pecking order behind Jack Crowley, Ciarán Frawley and Sam Prendergast.
When this permeated through to Leinster, it left Byrne little option but to pursue other avenues, and he wasn’t short of offers. His signing would seem to represent a good piece of business by Gloucester and it remains to be seen where Harry Byrne will end up playing next season. Still under contract with Leinster, the younger brother is currently enjoying a loan spell with Bristol.
