Leo Cullen on James Lowe exit: 'It's the nature of the business we're in'

The failure to keep James Lowe for another year, up to next year’s World Cup, has caused shockwaves in the game here

LOWE DOWN: James Lowe at Leinster's captain's run in Croke Park. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Leo Cullen has paid tribute to James’s Lowe impact at Leinster but described the Ireland winger’s departure from the club and from Irish rugby as a simple consequence of the nature of elite professional sport.

The failure to keep Lowe for another year, up to next year’s World Cup, has caused shockwaves in the game here given his nine years here and the fact that he finished the Six Nations as a first-choice wing for Andy Farrell.

Differences in opinion over contract figures appear to have left an unbridgeable gap between the player and the employer with the consequence being that he will now play his rugby in Japan for the next two years, his Test career done and dusted.

“There’s always these things across the board and you could go into every single example of players that are moving,” said Cullen. “It’s the nature of the business that we are in. The business gets done and you move on and that’s all you can do really.” 

Cullen, as he has done in previous weeks, was quick to praise Lowe who has been “brilliant” for the province and will leave as their top try scorer having claimed his 70th and 71st tries in his 100th appearance against the Stormers in the URC semi-final.

This Friday’s Grand Final against the Bulls at Croke Park will be his last act for the club and he won’t be alone in that. Luke McGrath is moving on to Perpignan, Jerry is off to Connacht and Rieko Ioane is due back in New Zealand after his brief sabbatical.

All three will feature against the Bulls. Others about to depart will not. Will Connors is injured while Ciarán Frawley and Rabah Slimani haven’t made the 23 named by Leinster after their captain’s run at GAA headquarters on Wednesday.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen. Pic: ©INPHO/Grace Halton

Sam Prendergast starts again at ten while Caelan Doris and Dan Sheehan have come through fitness issues to take their place in the back row and on the bench respectively. Ioane starts at centre in place of Garry Ringrose who hasn’t been 100% of late.

Andrew Porter’s absence with a calf injury leaves Cahir in the loosehead jersey with Alex Usanov providing backup while Max Deegan keeps Jack Conan on the bench. Joe McCarthy is named at lock despite a niggle that saw him take a back seat for the captain’s run.

The worry with Leinster is that they have very few new players confirmed for next season but a fair few on the way out. Should that stay the case then it would have a knock-on effect on their ability to compete at the very top next tern, in both competitions.

Lowe’s loss is the lightning rod for those fears right now but Cullen talked up the province’s ability to promote people from within.

“Simon Broughton, our academy manager, will have seven or eight fresh faces to come in and everyone just gets a year older in the building, and that’s just the way it is every year. We are in the growing our business primarily rather than recruitment.

“So you retain what you are retaining from the senior group and then you recruit from the system. That’s why I would never get bogged down by… Listen, we understand that people move for all sorts of reasons and we move on.

“The next group is the next group. I have loved working with all those people I talked about, I’m very passionate about them and you would love all these journeys to go on for evermore.

“But we all understand that’s not the reality of top-end sport because nothing stays the same forever. We need to evolve and continue to bring young guys through, keep that pressure from below.” 

Leinster aren’t alone in seeing a group of important players emptying their lockers. Similar is happening in the other three provinces and the perception is that there is a general tightening of belts happening on the say-so of the union.

“Ah, let’s have a more positive spin on it if we can,” said Cullen.

“As I said, it’s on to the next academy guy coming through and putting pressure on the senior guy. Luke McGrath at one stage was getting his first cap and now he is over 200 or whatever it is. That’s the evolution of the team. We’re all comfortable with that.” 

LEINSTER: H Keenan, T O’Brien, R Ioane, J Osborne, J Lowe, S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; J Cahir, R Kelleher, T Furlong, J McCarthy, J Ryan, M Deegan, J van der Flier, C Doris.

Replacements: D Sheehan, A Usanov, T Clarkson, D Mangan, J Conan, L McGrath, H Byrne, G Ringrose.

BULLS: W le Roux, KL Arendse, C Moodie, H Vorster, S Jacobs, H Pollard, E Papier, G Steenekamp, J Grobbelaar, F Klopper, R Vermaak, R Nortje, M Coetzee, E Louw, C Hanekom 

Replacements: M van Staden, JH Wessels, W Louw, C Wiese, J Rudolph, Z Burger, S Gans, N Carr.