Box office hit Lowe needs to adapt for his gritty role

LEINSTER are always going to get decent crowds at the RDS, particularly when they have a healthy smattering of frontline internationals on display, but James Lowe’s selection should put a few extra backsides into Dublin 4 seats this evening.

The Kiwi is pure box-office. With his distinctive long hair, natural charisma and explosive style of play, Lowe is a showbiz presence on the left wing for tonight’s Pro14 clash with Edinburgh.

Pace, power and the ability to off-load in the most unlikely of circumstances are Lowe’s defining attributes and his trademark ploy of tearing into heavy defensive traffic before putting a teammate clear is a tactic that has been embraced and spread through the Leinster squad.

However, while the winger brings plenty of show, the business of winning trophies is Leinster’s primary motivation and Lowe needs to prove he has taken on board some of the harsh defensive lessons he was handed last season.

That exposure saw Lowe miss out under the two-foreigner rule in the Champions Cup section of their double success, as Leinster opted for Scott Fardy and Jamison Gibson-Park on their big European days.

Fardy and Gibson-Park have proven to be invaluable additions in the back five and at scrum-half respectively, but the depth-laden province are well served in the outside backs and, along with Joe Tomane (on the bench again tonight), Lowe has to prove his worth with a coterie of talented, homegrown youngsters clamouring for inclusion.

That means curbing the impetuosity in defence that too fre-quently sees him shooting up and away from the touchline to get passed on the outside.

Tonight will be a decent test of Lowe’s work in this area as Edinburgh bring a pacy back three to the RDS, with Dougie Fife, Duhan van der Merwe and Sevens star Jamie Farndale all capable of smoking their markers if they are given the space to do so.

Edinburgh have a nuggety pack also, with veteran hooker Ross Ford and the abrasive second-row pairing of Fraser McKenzie and Ben Toolis capable of mixing it with the best.

However, Edinburgh could have presented a far more formidable challenge had they not left a clutch of international players out of their squad.

Blair Kinghorn, WP Nel, Henry Pyrgos, Hamish Watson, Matt Scott, Grant Gilchrist and Stu- art McInally are all omitted by Richard Cockerill. The extent to which this is driven by knocks picked up thus far, or by a policy of targeting ‘winnable’ matches, is not fully clear. However, it pours fuel on the debate surrounding the increasing move towards targeting specific fixtures in the Pro14 (with Ospreys coach Allen Clarke in the firing line after resting his main men for last week’s mauling by Munster in Cork). Regardless of the practicalities involved, this approach must surely go against the grain for Cockerill (left), a man schooled in the environs of the English Premiership with Leicester. Either way, under their fiery head coach, Edinburgh will always show up and lack of expectation could provide the visitors with a sense of adventure which may take time to quell. ‘Leinster are the best team in Europe but we pushed them close there last year, we are going to go there and throw everything at them,’ promised Cockerill. ‘It’s going to be a tough evening for us but we have to give it a lash.’ That should make for a sparky and entertaining contest, and certainly a more even one than last weekend’s romp against Bernard Jackman’s hopelessly outgunned Dragons, but even so, anything other than a relatively comfortable home win would constitute a major surprise.

Leinster are tooled up to prevent such an occurrence, Johnny Sexton makes his 150th appearance at out-half with Luke McGrath coming in for last week’s man of the match GibsonPark in what is developing into a intriguing battle for the No9 jersey.

With Jordan Larmour at 15, Ireland partnerships in the centre (Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose) and second row (Devin Toner and James Ryan) as well as Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan in the backrow – there is simply too much top-level quality for Edinburgh to handle, regardless of all their improvements under Cockerill.

Leinster’s bench makes for daunting reading from an Edinburgh perspective also, with Sean Cronin, Tadhg Furlong, GibsonPark and Ross Byrne all capable of significant impact – with an extra onus on Tomane to show something when he gets his cameo. The most significant presence among the replacements is fit-again flanker Dan Leavy, emphasising the abundance of elite backrow talents available to Leinster boss Leo Cullen – not to mention Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt.

He was phenomenal last season, but with Van der Flier back in the mix and Sean O’Brien nearing his return, there is no scope for standing still and Leavy will be desperate to reassert himself as swiftly as possible.

With clashes against Connacht and Munster next up, followed by the start of the Champions Cup pool campaign, the season is about to go up several notches in intensity and now is the time for players to state their case.

That pressure is likely to spur on the likes of Lowe, McGrath, Van der Flier and Leavy which spells good news for a Leinster outfit shaping up to match last season’s historic achievements.

Not such good news for Edinburgh and Cockerill.