James Lowe: It's a red and blue jumper and we don't like each other

James Lowe says there is 'mutual hatred' either side of the Munster-Leinster divide.

James Lowe at Leinster training in Rosemount, UCD. Pic ©INPHO/Tom Maher

James Lowe probably won’t be buying Johnny Sexton’s book. The Leinster and Ireland wing did spend eight years in the same dressing-rooms as the retired out-half. And it’s not like Sexton has disappeared off the face of the earth.

Dublin is at heart a small city. Lowe took the latter’s eldest son Luca for a hot chocolate only recently when he bumped into the pair on their way to the barber’s. If he picks ‘Obsessed’ up at all it will be straight to the index to see whether he gets a mention.

“If not he needs to write a second one!” 

Sexton’s book had already commanded attention by the time it appeared on the bookshelves on the very deliberate 10th day of the 10th month thanks to the frankness in detailing stories about everything from his childhood to a deep faith.

Excerpts published at the end of September had told of his bitter disappointment at missing out on the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour, his early relationship with Ronan O’Gara, and the end point of his career against New Zealand at last year’s World Cup.

James Lowe, left, and Josh van der Flier arrive for a Leinster rugby squad training session at UCD in Dublin. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Losing to the All Blacks in Paris in that quarter-final was disappointment enough. The manner in which Rieko Ioane told him to back off for the last kick and then told him to ‘enjoy his retirement’ in no uncertain terms only added to the bitter taste.

Lowe sheltered behind the trusty old line of not having seen the offending quotes when asked about it earlier this week. And he leaned towards pleading the fifth again when asked if such bald expressions of opinion were commonplace on the field.

"Ah, I dunno. There's good people and bad people in all areas of the work life, isn't there? So there's always going to be a little bit of... and rugby, obviously, it's a heated, physical exchange and words can be said.

"But what happens on the field normally stays on the field. Nothing really boils over into the car park like the old days. Yeah, it's water under the bridge a lot of the time. I'm too old to get involved in it now, I just stir the pot from a distance.” 

What better week to discuss rivalries and target emotions than this?

Lowe has had his ups and downs against Munster. He was sent off in the 2018 Christmas meeting in Limerick for a tackle on Andrew Conway while invariably finishing on the winning side and scoring six times in his 10 games against them to date.

Any pot-stirring is done respectfully.

“There's not many club teams that for round four of a competition they can almost already sell out 80,000. There's not many teams that can do it and, to be involved with Leinster with a rivalry that I have sort of inherited, it's pretty exciting.

“It's something I seriously look forward to. And there's a mutual hatred between the boys. As much as I love to see them succeed and I play with a lot of them, when it comes to it, if [Craig] Casey is in front of me, I don't care. Like, if Calvin [Nash]'s in front of me, I don't care.

“And I'm sure they're saying the exact same thing on the other side. At the end of the day, we will shake hands and hopefully see each other in November. It's just a red and a blue jumper and when it comes to playing against each other we don't like each other.” 

He chuckles when thinking back to the 2009 Croke Park game and that famous image of Sexton standing over O’Gara while roaring at the prone Munster out-half. If the rivalry remains healthy after a dip for some years then the odd line is blurred this week.

Munster have their share of Leinster men in the ranks. Leinster have former Munster players RG Snyman and Tyler Bleyendaal bringing a combination of brawn and brains to the table as they look to build on a perfect start to the URC so far.

Lowe was 17 when he first crossed paths with Bleyendaal who is a few years older. The latter was “wrapped in cotton wool” then, behind a who’s who list of world-class out-halves at the Crusaders. Now he’s the man designing Leinster’s attack.

“He’s very open-minded about how he plays the game. He has simplified a lot of things for us and took us a few weeks to understand it … I know he's still so early in his coaching career but he's definitely not out of his depth coming in here.” 

Snyman could prove to be another key in unlocking the door to the sort of silverware that has eluded the province the last three seasons. Lowe, for one, is excited for the possibilities that should come for him on the back of the Springbok’s power and offloading game.

“He's a crazy good athlete, he's obviously physically large than life and he played very well for the 50-odd minutes that he played [last week against Benetton]. Hopefully, we can keep him injury-free and play out a whole season, that would be nice for us.”