Lowe: 'It’s a blessing and a curse. We absolutely love the travelling support'

The support Ireland received from their travelling supporters, whose green jerseys dominated the 41,117 crowd on Saturday, though James Lowe described it as a double-edged sword.

IRISH SUPPORT: James Lowe finds the Irish support is phenomenal but is too scared to go outside half the time. Pic:©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

While there were frustrations on James Lowe’s part he did not add his name to the scoresheet in the 12-try rout of Romania, they were quickly parked as Ireland’s all-court attack found its groove again ahead of tougher World Cup challenges to come.

Like the other 22 Irish players involved at Stade de Bordeaux last Saturday, Lowe contributed to the 82-8 victory that gave their Pool B campaign lift-off and boosted their points differential in advance of the expected tighter contests to come, starting this Saturday night against Tonga in Nantes.

That the wings, also including Keith Earls and replacement Mack Hansen did not apply the finishing touches may be moot to Lowe, with 10 tries in 22 Tests for Ireland, but the speed and accuracy of some of Ireland’s passing between backs and forwards produced a fluency in attack he believes will be necessary if his team are to progress through this tournament.

Tries poured forth from every unit of the team with full-back Hugo Keenan saving back-three blushes by scoring the second try of the afternoon and Lowe grumbled: “Yeah, it was bloody annoying because the boys inside me kept scoring, but sure that’s what happens.

“We managed to rack up a fair few tries and we know come the end of this round robin that could prove quite well.” 

Lowe explained the success of the continuity between forwards and backs, adding: “That’s what we train. We train under pressure and you want to test yourself in the harshest environment. We did it against Romania and next we’ve got to do it against Tonga and the week after we’ve got to do it against South Africa.

“It’s probably a good build-in to the big Test match being South Africa in our pool, and then a week off and then Scotland, so hopefully we can keep building and just get better and better.” 

The former Maori All Black knows improvement is necessary for the rest of the tournament when chances will be at a premium and skill levels elevated.

“I think teams are being rewarded for being ambitious but like we’re not doing anything too crazy do you think? It’s everything we train, it’s not off the cuff or we don’t know what we’re doing.

“Everyone has got a role to play, it’s 15 all in and it doesn’t matter what number you’ve got on the back of your shirt you’ve got to perform and you’ve got to have the skill set.

“You’re seeing props with hands like loose forwards used to have and the same with our locks. Some of our locks can play as loose forwards. It’s just the evolution of the game and we’re not the only team that has an athletic forward pack, there’s a fair few others out there.” 

To that end, Lowe felt Ireland actually left some points out there against Romania.

“Yeah we gave them a serious amount of respect that they duly deserved. They’ve come to the World Cup, we played a lot of territory in the first-half and there was space in the backfield but really we should have played a bit more eyes-up rugby and really attacked them.

“I think we’ll look back on that and there was probably some opportunities when we could have countered a lot better, but the second-half was pretty good.” 

So was the support Ireland received from their travelling supporters, whose green jerseys dominated the 41,117 crowd on Saturday, though Lowe described it as a double-edged sword.

“Yeah, it’s been intense man, it’s the World Cup. The travelling support has been incredible. You can’t bloody get away from the Irish, everywhere you go. Half the time I’m sitting in my hotel because I’m too scared to go outside.

“It’s a blessing and a curse. We absolutely love the travelling support. When we did a loop at the end there it was absolutely phenomenal. The amount of green that stood there and waited for us and cheered as we walked around was absolutely phenomenal.” 

The Leinster wing even displayed a grudging admiration for the tournament’s adoption of the Cranberries’ Zombie, which blasted out from the stadium speakers at full-time, just as it has for a season or more at Munster games.

“Ehm, aww, it’s a love-hate,” was Lowe’s verdict on the song. “The boys down the road play it a lot, eh? No, it is a love-hate but sure look when they’re singing it for us it sounds good.”