James Lowe: 'We struggled to wrangle back momentum'

The Leinster veteran had been an impressive performer as Ireland handled the early loss of Tadhg Beirne quite well. He lamented that when the green wobble began, they had built up just a six-point cushion.

Sun, 02 Nov, 2025 - 09:53

Joe Callaghan, Chicago

With precious little of the infrastructure at Soldier Field working as it was supposed to, the stadium clocks read 22 minutes.

There were in fact 62 minutes gone — the timers had reset at half-time — and Ireland were leading New Zealand by six points. Then, All Black hell broke loose.

From his vantage point on the wing, James Lowe watched as familiar foes found their groove and ran in three tries which turned the Chicago rematch on its head entirely.

“I think for 60 minutes the game was in the balance, wasn't it? We struggled to wrangle back momentum,” Lowe said after suffering a third-straight surrender to what was once his homeland. “At the start of the second half, we were good, but when you don't convert pressure into points. It probably shows with the outcome. So, shit, it is what it is, man.

“I don't know, man. We put ourselves in a position for the game to go deep and unfortunately we just didn’t. It was discipline, wasn't it? A few soft penalties when momentum’s against you, how do you stop it? How do you wrangle it back? Maybe a few lapses in concentration and that's all you need to do. Unfortunately, against world-class teams, they punish you for that.”

Tamaiti Williams, Wallace Sititi and Cam Roigard were on the end of the All Blacks’ decisive moves in a 15-minute spell that decided things.

The final scoreline, 26-13, could have been even more one-sided, but that would have arguably felt a touch harsh on those Irish players who had performed well out there. After so much talk of Andy Farrell’s team being undercooked, Lowe insisted he hadn’t left the field gasping.

“Nah, it was actually nice to play good rugby, personally. Make sure I'm not as shit as my last game,” he said referencing the interpro defeat to Munster at Croke Park. “It was nice to get a decent performance, but obviously collectively we need to look at each other and make sure… because our set piece was okay, we were getting decent ball, probably at the breakdown we had too many turnovers.

"If you want to get at our team and try and stop the tightness of our shapes and making sure we've got the right people in the right position, you go hard at our rucks. I think that's what we're going to be doing all week, is whacking each other at the ruck.”

The stop-start nature of the first half particularly didn’t help the flow of a contest that rarely got going. Yet it was also amid that, and being down to 14, that Ireland had their better spells.

“Yeah, it was funny, wasn't it? It was a stop-start in the first half, but I felt like we were probably sitting in the box seat in that first half, weren’t we?” wondered Lowe.

“We were able to stop them, we were able to put pressure on them. I think it was one entry into the 22, we got into our flow really, really well and boys were piling on around the corner. At the start of the second half, we won a few battles, but then after that it was stop-start and you're up against it, aren't you? It is what it is.

“Nothing really changed [with the red card], we just knuckled down. I guess our plan was to go to the air more just because we were men down. Aerially, I think we were half decent. It's hard to put a finger on what actually... shoulda, coulda, woulda.”

Lowe said Farrell hadn’t been reading the riot act before sending his players through the mixed zone. The defeat stung but he was adamant that Ireland can still have a productive November with Japan, Australia and South Africa on deck, “[Andy’s] OK. I mean, we're there or thereabouts, aren't we?”

It was so close, it was an opportunity that probably slipped us, unfortunately.

And now we're here, heads down, scratching our heads, thinking what's next? But I can tell you what's next, it's three test matches against three very, very good opponents. There's another exam next week and hopefully we're not all down like this.

“Have you ever seen me not being confident? It's just part of my demeanour. It doesn't matter what situation you put me in, I'll try and find the best out of it. I have full confidence in this team going forward.

"It was one that unfortunately slipped our grasp. I'll tell you right now, there's three more games and three very good opponents. We're going to put our best foot forward and hopefully rip into them.”