TREVOR BRENNAN'S RUGBY BAR

The Toulouse cult hero owns the best rugby-themed bar we've been to!

- JOE ROBINSON

FINDING SOMEWHERE good before and after a game for a pint is gold dust. So often you find yourself hauled up in some chain pub that is pumping out headless Guinness in plastic cups and microwavable meals for the price of a small hatchback. It can make the concept of enjoying hospitality before and after a rugby game unbearable. So when you find somewhere good, it's special.

Now I’m not sure how many of you are regulars at Toulouse these days, but if you find yourself knocking around the home of these European giants, we have a tip for you and it comes in the form of Trevor Brennan's bar.

You remember Trevor Brennan, right? The double-hard Irish lad who played for Toulouse and Ireland in the back row. An absolute enforcer back in the days of Fabien Pelous and Frédéric Michalak. The player who went into the crowd and... yeah, that’s him.

Well, he’s not just a cult hero of Toulouse on the pitch. In fact, he’s somewhat of a local hero to both rugby fans and those who like a quiet pint, as with Brennan's Bar in Castelginest and Brennan’s Snug in Seilh. Both just stone's throws from Toulouse’s Stade Ernest-Wallon, they are two of the best rugby-themed pubs in the entire world.

But how did a young man from Dublin come to be one of the best bar owners in the South of France? “I first came to Toulouse in 2002 from Leinster where I played from 1996 to 2002; I’m from Dublin South originally. “I then opened a bar in Toulouse in 2004 when I was playing,” Brennan tells Rugby World. “When I first arrived, it was a lot tougher back then. I had to live in a hotel for six weeks while I tried to find some accommodation.