How James Lowe reinvented himself to become integral part of Irish team

Not the least impressive aspect of James Lowe is how he has adapted to the demands placed on him by Leinster and Ireland. Free-spirited and free-scoring throughout his career, Lowe has effectively reinvented himself in his late 20s to become an integral part and natural fit in this Irish team. That's no easy feat.

For all his natural talent and X factor, like Jamison Gibson-Park and perhaps even Bundee Aki, Lowe might never have made it as an All Black. But that doesn’t mean the Irish system cannot polish gems like this trio and turn them into top end Test players.

While Lowe is quick, the All Blacks like their wingers to be jet-heeled finishers, like Sevu Reece or Will Jordan. It’s conceivable that given the same choice as Ireland, the All Blacks might well prefer Robert Baloucoune in their team.

But no less than Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster at Leinster, Andy Farrell and Mike Catt like their wingers to be more involved. Ireland are rarely going to be bigger, stronger or even quicker than top tier teams, but they can work harder, and helped by the employment of their wingers across the pitch, it is their work-rate off the ball which makes this Irish side’s high tempo, layered attack so difficult to defend.

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Lowe’s head coach with the New Zealand Maori team was Colin Cooper, but by the time he’d been appointed to take over the Chiefs in 2018, Lowe was already Leinster bound.

“I was disappointed with that because I had built a good relationship with him at the Maoris. I knew what switches to switch with him. I knew what he could offer, and what he had to work on.”

“But it doesn’t surprise me what he’s achieved with Leinster and Ireland and I’m pleased for him. He just had to get away and work hard. Things were probably a little bit easy for him here and he still had promise. He’s 29 now so he’s probably at his peak. He has the maturity to utilize his strengths.

“With those Maori boys, if you create a culture and an environment that they feel like they belong, they’ll do the work for you.”

“Because he was a natural player and a natural athlete, he didn’t have to work too hard but you can see he’s excited when he plays for Ireland and the coaches are obviously doing a great job.”

In his first season with Leinster, Lowe freely admitted that Stuart Lancaster’s demands on him and attention to detail wrecked his head. Still, he has been a prolific weapon for Leinster since his arrival in late 2017 and on foot of becoming eligible for Ireland he was swiftly brought into the team, making a try-scoring debut against Wales in the Autumn Nations Cup.

A week later against England his work-rate in covering back as Jonny May scored a pitch-length try was questioned, as were some defensive shortcomings in the first four rounds of the Six Nations, and he was dropped for Ireland's final game against England.

But Lowe marked his recall against Japan last November with the opening try, after which Farrell said: “James had a little bit of a wake-up call. He went away and understood how he needed to prepare for international rugby. His preparation is through the roof in comparison to what it was before.

“He’s learned the hard way, there’s a few things that he needs to get better from as well but his attitude is in the right place and I’m sure that will happen.

“He’s not a tidy player but neither do we want our players to be tidy players. He finds a way into the game, he’s in great nick, he’s lost a bit of weight and is fit.”

Lowe was always a prodigious rugby talent. Interviewing him in 2017 before he played at fullback for the New Zealand Maori against the Lions, he was immediately engaging, unfiltered and infectiously good-humoured.

He says he’s always been like that, a bit of a clown as he put it once, so much so people thought he had ADHD when he was growing up.

“But when it comes to the serious times, I’m always there, I’m always engaged and doing whatever needs to be done. But you have to have a laugh man, you always do. If you take things too seriously you’ll bloody get too wound up. It’s just how I am.

“You always have to have a smile on your face. If you’re not enjoying it don’t do it.”

Lowe started playing rugby, like almost all Kiwi boys, when he was about five in Nelson, on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay in the south island.

“If I could it would have been about three. I was a handful as a kid, running before I was crawling, running around on couches and tackling my sister. There’s so many holes in my hallway, man. I’d be just running up and down kicking stuff. But I started about five for a club called Stoke in Nelson and I moved out to Waimea Old Boys when I was about six or seven. It’s been a while.”

He took to it like the proverbial duck to water. “Awww, yeah. Ball in the hand sort of thing. I just absolutely love the game, love everything about it. I’m competitive by nature so any chance I get I cherish it and I love it.”

He’s the youngest of three, to Yvonne and Geoff, who also played rugby. “My old man did until he found beer. That’s what he said anyway. No, my dad played rugby, he was a winger as well. That’s pretty much it. He’s a country boy from back home (Nelson), played for Rangers.

“My mother’s side, they all love sport. My mum played netball, my sister (Sharleene) represented New Zealand Secondary Schools at netball. She played volleyball and everything. Sport kind of runs in the family. It was a way to keep us out of trouble I guess.”

However, at 15, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

“I was like any other 15 year old. Running around like a lunatic playing all sorts of sports and doing what 15 year olds do and then boom, I’m bed ridden.

“Like how do you come back from that? In bed, as a 15-year-old? It took a while but I got back on my feet and then looked at rehab and medication and a lot of hard work. But I got there and here I am.”

Keen to share his story with children who’ve suffered similarly, and their parents, he became an ambassador for Arthritis New Zealand and still wears their orange wristband on his right hand on match days.

He’s also linked in with iCAN, the Irish Children’s Arthritis Network and become an ambassador for the Rugby Players’ Ireland Tackle Your Feelings campaign.

Lowe signed for his provincial side the Tasman Makos, under Kieran Keane (who would become Connacht coach) and his assistant, former All Blacks fullback Leon MacDonald, who is now head coach of the Auckland Blues.

After making his provincial debut at the age of 20 in 2012, and helping the Makos to promotion with six tries in 11 games, Dave Rennie brought him into the Chiefs’ Super Rugby team.

In 45 games for Tasman he scored 20 tries, and in his four seasons with the Chiefs scored 25 tries in 53 appearances. He was 22 when Cooper brought him into the New Zealand Maori team for their 2014 end-of-year two Tests in Japan.

“He had X factor all over him and he was quick, and he’s big with it. He’s got raw natural speed but what he really possesses, and what I used him for with the Maoris, was his awesome left foot,” says Cooper.

Lowe also scored two tries for the Maoris against the USA in their 2016 end-of-year tour, and played in their defeat by Munster at Thomond Park. Cooper recalls the former game in Chicago.

“John Mitchell was the coach and because we scored points they’d do a split kick-off and kick it straight to Lowey. He’d get the ball inside our 22 and it would end up in their 22. He did this three times and they stopped doing that.

“I said to John afterwards: ‘He’s one of the best left-footed kickers in the country’,” adds Cooper with a chuckle.

“Lowey is different from Jamo (Gibson-Park). A lot more confident. A bubbly guy and a great team man. His attacking game and his kicking game is all natural to him, he just had to sort out his defence.

“It was that inconsistency which probably dogged him in this country, like making decisions to go for intercepts. But people started to read him and his defence had to improve. I’m pleased to see that excitement in his defence and that’s what usually happens when you get time to move on and fix up things. You come back stronger or you go home.”

Yet it tells us much that initially, rather than join Leinster as soon as the Chiefs had completed their Super Rugby season in 2017, Lowe chose to finish out his time with the Makos, who went all the way to the Mitre 10 Cup Final.

“Yeah it was a big decision to leave. Actually I’d argue that it was the first real grown up decision that I have made,” he freely admitted in his first season with Leinster, adding: “I don’t come from a very wealthy background so financially this will probably be the smartest business decision I’ll ever make.”

He was immediately struck by the similarities with his home province and Leinster, that sense of local identity.

“The majority of the squad are home grown, grew up in Leinster, wanted to play for Leinster and now play for Leinster. I really like that. It’s nearly a swear word to mention other clubs in HQ!”

Geoff and Yvonne have travelled over in the past for Leinster games, but akin to Gibson-Park’s parents, haven’t been able to travel and see him play for Ireland - something that also ought to be rectified in July.

Lowe truly came of age as an Irish international player with a big contribution to Ireland’s 29-20 win over the All Blacks last November, when scoring the game’s opening try.

“That was an amazing experience and something I will never forget. It was a shame that I couldn’t have my family there as well.

“I know they were sitting at home watching. My dad was, embarrassingly enough, wearing full Irish kit and a Leinster hat, walking around town on Sunday morning after the All Blacks had been beaten. He was extremely proud. He had a cheese-cutter on, an Irish jumper and my Leinster trackies. It is kind of embarrassing but also hilarious!”

As for Lowe, even the doubters have been won over.

“It’s a fickle world,” Lowe said earlier this season.

“What you find is that you get built up all the time and then chopped down. That’s the nature of the beast. That’s professional sport. It doesn’t matter what sport it is; as soon as you slip up, they’ll jump on you. I will ride the wave as long as I can and try not to make any mistakes, then they can be on my side. That’s the plan!”

The plan is going pretty well now.