Tonga Rugby Shop<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome time for them to lose, to really put things into perspective, and understand that there\u2019s a storm coming from the north,\u201d Lowe continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking forward to Japan, is it a bad thing they lost in the northern tour? They\u2019ll learn from that and they will come back another beast.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Lowe in action for the New Zealand Maori back in 2016. Source: Photosport\/Andrew Cornaga\/INPHO<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople talked about them potentially not respecting the Irish in the lead up to Chicago, but you have a degree of respect for everyone you come up against, and this Irish team has proven that they\u2019re definite title contenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the All Blacks team, they\u2019re still very, very young. Their bench, don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s awesome and they\u2019d start for most other nations but it\u2019s not the bench of old.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is always trying to get better, they don\u2019t go back and say \u2018oh we just slipped up this time, water under the bridge.\u2019 They\u2019ll definitely learn, and come back with a bit of bite.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean it might have been the wake up call they needed, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s hard to say, isn\u2019t it? In terms of the bigger picture it could be a good thing that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
You wonder did watching Ireland\u2019s performance, and experiencing the sense of occasion, first hand on Saturday frustrate Lowe that he didn\u2019t arrive here earlier, and then you remember the type of character he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBlame Leo [Cullen], I guess,\u201d he laughs. \u201cNah, it\u2019s the way of the wind, isn\u2019t it? You can\u2019t really predict those sort of things and how everything unfolded. I still think I\u2019m bloody lucky to turn up here when I did. It is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it is, Lowe\u2019s energies are purely focused on Leinster. Until the time comes, he won\u2019t give too much thought to the idea of playing for Ireland. It\u2019s a while away yet, a lot of rugby to be played.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Going back to Saturday, he makes a point of adding how much of \u2018an absolute bloody freak\u2019 James Ryan is after watching his Leinster team-mate produce a truly world-class performance against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis numbers, something like 19 carries, 17 tackles, I mean that speaks for himself. I saw him today and I went up for a handshake and he was just like\u2026[moves like a robot and laughs]. He was immense.<\/p>\n
Lowe and James Tracy launching ‘Double Delight’, a picture diary looking back on Leinster’s double-winning season. Source: Sam Barnes\/SPORTSFILE<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I\u2019ve got here, he\u2019s the softest hard person I\u2019ve ever met. Throughout the week you wouldn\u2019t know you\u2019re going to get that sort of performance out of him. He still has a lot to learn which the scary thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re saying those numbers and they\u2019re world class, and this kid is like, what, 22? He still can\u2019t drive! Imagine when he gets all the pieces of the puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan has been released by the IRFU back to Leinster and won\u2019t feature in the final November Test against USA on Saturday, but for Lowe the attention is on the return of the Pro14 on Friday evening.<\/p>\n
Having been excused from the trip to South Africa in round eight, the Kiwi winger is keen to get back on the pitch when the Ospreys visit the RDS this week \u2014 and it will be even more special with his parents in the crowd for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, if I get to play,\u201d he smiles. \u201cSee how that goes. It has been a long time between drinks since my parents have been here. It\u2019s an exciting time and I know they\u2019re excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my Dad\u2019s 60th on Saturday and I mean I keep it quite quiet, but he was telling the bloody world. He had a few pints shouted for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really enjoyed himself and hopefully on Friday night if I get to run out at the RDS it will be another special occasion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Subscribe to our new podcast, Heineken Rugby Weekly on The42, here:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EITHER WAY, JAMES Lowe was going to be smiling. That\u2019s the way he\u2019s tuned, but the result of Saturday\u2019s one-versus-two showdown at the Aviva Stadium admittedly left him with mixed feelings. Overall, though, he was just delighted to be there with his parents. The Auckland-born winger, who qualifies to represent Ireland in 2020, had feet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}