'It’s awesome to have played a small part in it' - James Lowe ready for latest clash in Ireland All Blacks rivalry
The hump day headlines in Chicago had plenty to say about age.
Wednesday morning’s offerings split along a couple of eras: with the place still purring over a masterclass delivered by its latest wunderkind, an icon for all generations stepped in to have a say.
Connor Bedard, a gift from the ice hockey gods sent to bring the city’s Blackhawks back to the NHL summit, scored his first career hat-trick Tuesday night, the youngest to do so.
Around the same time, Michael Jordan was delivering another of his Insights To Excellence as part of the NBA’s return to the NBC network.
Load management came into the Great One’s crosshairs. “It shouldn't be needed,” his withering verdict.
The Ireland team had had their visit to the Blackhawks on Sunday with NBA on the agenda for Wednesday night. The chatter would surely have struck some as apt — advancing years and managing a load has become a central theme for Andy Farrell’s group too.
The 36-strong panel gathered for an autumn series of internationals which marks the half-way point to the next Rugby World Cup looks a little too on the seasonal nose for many observers. Plenty in the autumn of their careers, some perhaps stepping into winter.
James Lowe is somewhere in that mix. As ever, you will hear him before your see him, the 33-year-old winger rarely short of a word or soft in delivering it. Sitting down with him is a journey that may meander just as he has — to parts unexpected and unknown.
This conversation would uncover that he was, in fact, there in person for Ireland’s Soldier Field glory in 2016, with “almost a foot in both camps”.
We’ll come back to that. The future is more pressing. He’ll be 35 when the world gathers in Australia in two years but it’s another destination on his map.
“I guess it’s the north star, isn’t it?” Lowe says.
“Something a lot of boys in here are targeting as something you really want to get to. As you start to age and things start to change, family dynamics and how your body is holding up, I mean that comes into play. But we’re looked after so well in Ireland, especially in Leinster and especially when we come into camp.
“Our workload isn’t crazy. The amount of games we play aren’t crazy. You can picture it. I can say in this month I know I’m going to be playing this or that game so you curate your weeks and how you prepare.
"As a 33-year-old, it’s awesome to be able to still sit in that seat and go ‘I know that this week I’m going to have to knuckle down and make sure the body’s right’. I know that next week I might get a week off.
"So we have to get through a lot of work. Cross the I’s and dot the T’s because as you get older, people say you get slower but we’re doing our best to stay on top of things.”
Ireland’s age profile feels particularly pointed in the backline. Eight of the 16 out here are already north of 30, a fellow Kiwi-born convert oldest of all.
“How old is Bundee because he keeps telling me he’s 29 and I can tell you right now, he’d finished school by the time I finished school!” smiled Lowe. “I wouldn’t rule Bundee out [of 2027] man. That dude is made of metal. I think he’ll be gritting his teeth to get there.”
The gritting of All Black teeth was a lasting memory of the last visit by both of Lowe’s nations to these parts. A quick enquiry as to where he’d watched the 2016 victory revealed a surprising answer.
“I was at Soldier Field. I was in the stadium,” he says. "I was playing for the Maori All Blacks the day before. So myself and Brad Weber had hired the Lime bikes and were having cans and go there and watch the game and jumped back on the Lime bikes after.
"It was good fun. We were there and obviously Ireland won and I had almost a foot in both camps because I didn’t know what my future held at that stage… One thing led to another and then I’m living in Dublin the last almost ten years.”
In that intervening time, Lowe has helped ensure Chicago wouldn’t stand alone. Instead this is a rivalry which he says “in the last five years has grown exponentially to a bit of hatred between us”. He’s all too aware it wasn’t always like this.
“Was it 2012? I remember that. I would have been 19 then? I think was Paul O’Connell playing? Rob Kearney, Keith Earls? I remember Keith saying…they got how many points put on them? It was 60-something. And when we went [to Wellington] for that third Test match [in 2022] it was 1-1 heading in there, and to be on the other side of it, probably shows how far Irish rugby has come,” he says.
“It’s awesome to have played a small part in it but also to have been there for some of the biggest days in Irish rugby history. It’s been phenomenal and I’m very lucky to be sitting here waffling on to you boys now.”
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Saturday will see him face a haka for the seventh time in his Ireland career. Unless we’re in for a draw, his record which currently sits at three wins and three losses will til to one side. He doesn’t appear to have anything planned for a pre-match response.
“You’d have to ask Faz. Nothing I’ve heard of. Have you? I haven’t heard yet,” he wonders.
“As long as you’re respectful in how you receive it I don’t think there’s a problem with it. People have done a lot of different things. Who was it that didn’t actually go out for it once? Wales, yeah, and that didn’t end too well. We’ll be out there. I don’t know what we’ll do yet but to stand there in a line and face it is pretty special.”
A near-decade in Dublin has shaped Lowe. He can be incredibly Kiwi and very Irish in the same sentence. When asked to reflect on his experience on tour with the Lions this summer, he reached for an agricultural phrase delivered with near-perfect diction.
“It was nice to mix and mingle with outer nations. Pick the brains of other people and rub shoulders with people who, for the last 11 months hate with such a passion,” Lowe says. “You built them up to be these big evil people who you want to bate the bollocks off and the you sit down and have a beer with them and go ‘man you are just so like…me in so many ways’.”
But there are still plenty of friends on the other side too, one of whom who has developed quite the habit of bating the bollocks off those in green shirts. The game’s pre-eminent fullback, Will Jordan’s staggering strike rate of 43 tries in 50 Tests includes plenty ran in against Ireland.
“He’s shocking man. Dunno why they keep picking him. I hope they don’t pick him on Saturday. Why would they? Keeps on scoring tries. I dunno. Bad bloke as well. Make sure he hears that,” deadpans Lowe.
"I grew up with Will. I played NPC with him when he first came on the block. He was pretty good back then as well.
“I remember his debut for Tasman, jeepers 2014 of 15 maybe, against Manawatu. I’m going to say he scored two tries and from there there was something different about him. Unfortunately he’s still doing the same thing as he did against poor Manawatu ten years ago. He’s got a big future.”
Bundee Aki — 37
James Lowe — 35
Jamison Gibson Park — 35
Stuart McCloskey — 35
Tom Farrell — 34
Robbie Henshaw — 34
Caolin Blade — 33
Garry Ringrose — 32.
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