Ulster's Lowry laughs off ‘excited’ Zebo’s try celebration

By Jim Stokes

Ulster’s young star Michael Lowry insists he was not offended by Simon Zebo’s celebrations in Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup defeat to Racing.

Zebo was accused of taunting the Ulsterman seconds before diving over the line and subsequently apologised for this actions.

The issue has dominated social media in the days since but Lowry believes the controversy has been ‘blown up a bit’.

“I didn’t think about an apology, to be fair, at all,” said Lowry, who has shown maturity beyond his years since his European debut against Leicester two weeks ago.

“I was just thinking of the next play. But looking back on it, it was nice to see him come over and apologise. Nigel (Owens, the referee) told Simon to apologise. Nigel didn’t say anything to me in particular, he said to Simon, so that’s what he did.

He continued: “I expected it to be on social media a wee bit, but I think it’s blown up a bit. At the time I didn’t think much of it to be fair. I think he just got a bit excited like most people would in front of their home fans in that stadium. I tried not to put too much on social media, just ‘apology accepted’. He apologised and we made up.

“When you see videos published online all the time about rugby players, you never think that one day that could be you,” he laughed at the viral nature of the situation.

“When I went out on Saturday night I was looking at newsfeeds and it was all about me and Zebo. I didn’t expect it, to be fair, I expected a bit of tweeting and some statuses, but I didn’t think it’d be published on every single website! My followers went up massively so I was over the moon! So in terms of that, it was quite good,” laughed Lowry, who missed nearly all of last season with injury, and now suddenly he’s top of the news.

Obviously, it’s been an incredible experience. This time last year, I never thought I’d be playing in Europe against Racing and Leicester.

Lowry starts his third game in succession when Ulster return to the Guinness PRO14 programme this evening when the Dragons fly into Belfast (7.55 kick-off). Lowry will be accompanied by another promising Academy player in the shape of 21-year-old Ireland Sevens flyer Robert Baloucoune who will be making his debut in a side that sees five changes from last week. Baloucoune is a product of Portora Royal and played in the junior ranks with the Enniskillen club. Meanwhile, fly-half Jason Tovey starts for Dragons after re-joining the club for a third spell as injury cover for Arwel Robson and Gavin Henson. Tovey’s inclusion is one of 10 changes made by Dragons head coach Bernard Jackman.

ULSTER:

M Lowry; R Baloucoune, W Addison, S McCloskey, H Speight; J McPhillips, D Shanahan; E O’Sullivan, R Best (capt), M Moore, I Henderson, K Treadwell, S Reidy, J Murphy, M Coetzee.

Replacements:

R Herring, R Warwick, T O’Toole, A O’Connor, G Jones, J Stewart, A Kernohan, C Gilroy.

DRAGONS:

J Williams; D Howells, A Warren, J Sage, W Talbot-Davies; J Tovey, R Williams; B Harris, R Hibbard (capt), L Fairbrother; M Screech, L Evans, H Taylor, N Cudd, H Keddie.

Replacements:

R Lawrence, A Jarvic, R Bevington, J Davis, T Basham, T Knoyle, J Dixon, Z Kirchner