Will the real James Lowe please stand up
‘IT’S LIKE A DIFFERENT PERSON WATCHING HIM PLAY FOR IRELAND, BUT I DON’T THINK IT’S HIS FAULT’
FOR three seasons, James Lowe fizzed around the fields of Europe. Always smiling, he had the capacity to break games wide open by going over, under, around or through defences and his abrasive approach made him a box-office attraction. Last November, he brought all of that to his Ireland debut against Wales. There was a running battle with Liam Williams, some big carries and a show-stopping try to cap it all off. He looked a game-changing addition. Three months on, the picture is different. Lowe found himself suffocated by England and then eviscerated by former international winger Chris Ashton who described him as “too big, too heavy, too slow” on a BBC podcast.
Even if he wanted to put things right in the aftermath, injuries to his knee and his groin put paid to that so he had to wait until the Six Nations to get another go.
So far, it’s been a frustrating tournament for Ireland and perhaps no player encapsulates that more than a man who is looking less and less like the player who was recruited to play for Ireland on the basis of his attacking prowess and selected on the back of his form.
Footwork
Rather than admiring his footwork, Lowe’s cannon of a left boot has emerged as his main source of strength. Rarely has a player transformed so much in front of our eyes. The step up to international level has also heightened the focus on his defensive game.
Ashton’s comments were rooted in criticism of Lowe switching off for Jonny May’s try in Twickenham, while he’s been at least partly to blame for tries in both of Ireland’s defeats to Wales and France.
Andy Farrell brought Lowe into camp before he’d even qualified to play for Ireland and is a big believer in what he has to offer. “James brings something to our side that probably others don’t, a left foot for starters – that’s the obvious one, but a big strong ball-carrying runner who is dynamic people on, not just on the edges but down the middle as well,” he said this week.
“He’s the type of winger who looks to get his hands on the ball and we want that. If you’ve got a winger like that in your game than it certainly helps the forwards out along the way to get you that quick ball that you’re after.
“Having said that, along the way James is getting that bit more continuity now. He’s young as far as international rugby is concerned and I’m sure that there’s a few things in his game that we’ve talked about over the last few weeks that we need to tidy up.”
Lowe played four times for the Maori All Blacks and would have been capped for New Zealand had it not been for an untimely injury in 2015.
Although competition for wing spots is incredibly fierce in that neck of the woods, he stood out as a potential international even if he self-deprecatingly told this newspaper: “I can catch, pass and kick and they didn’t really need that on the wings. They had Julian (Savea) to run over people.”
In 2017, he received an offer he couldn’t refuse from Leinster and the IRFU. Financially, it made sense and from a rugby point of view it offered him a chance to test himself abroad.
Right from the outset, the prospect of playing for Ireland was on the table. Lowe has described the three-year residency laws as “stupid” and “silly”, but he was happy to take the chance and has earned his shot.
Of all of the ‘project players’ recruited to play for Ireland in the last decade, none came closer to playing for New Zealand and South Africa than Lowe and thus there are huge expectations on his shoulders.
Yet, former Ireland winger Andrew Trimble believes the jump from bullying opponents at Leinster to the top level cannot be underestimated.
“It’s a step up and a different style of game, but I think it’s more different whenever Ireland are getting beaten and Leinster are dominant,” said Trimble, who now presents the Potholes and Penguins podcast with former Munster centre Barry Murphy.
“Leinster have lost two games in a year in a half, they canter to games and whenever James Lowe plays for Leinster it is just so easy for him.
“He just has the ability to do all that stuff, but you can never do that at Test match level, especially in the Six Nations.
“He’s just developed his kicking game, which is quite amazing, from the style of rugby’s he’s been playing.
“He’s known for just bashing guys, getting offloads, a real incredible skillset that we’re not quite used to.
“That’s why he turned so many heads at Leinster, he was such a joy to watch.
“Simon Hick at Second Captains put a Tweet out where he said: ‘James Lowe should be on a retainer from the PRO14 because it’s way more interesting watching Leinster play when he’s playing’.
“But it’s like a different person watching him play for Ireland, but I don’t think it’s his fault.
“It’d be good to see James Lowe get back to what he does best.”
In his four caps for Ireland, Lowe has kicked 32.65pc of his possession whereas at Leinster he’s put boot to ball 10.04pc of the time.
“I have always been a decent kicker of a ball,” he said recently.
“At international level there is more pressure coming, so we really had to shorten a lot of my steps leading into the kick. I thought that I needed to have a massive run-up and get momentum for the ball to actually fly.
“I’ve broken it so far down, to making sure that I am catching it static, taking one or two steps, and getting a full kick through. I’ve been trying to perfect that for so long, it was nice to get a couple of nice ones off the laces (against Wales).
“If you can add that string to the bow, if it helps the team to get into some of the right areas in the field that is what I am going to keep on doing.”
It has become the dominant part of Lowe’s skillset and fans are crying out for the other elements of his game to come to the fore.
“James is a hell of an athlete, powerful with a great fend and an ability to beat people and score tries,” Australia coach Dave Rennie, who coached Lowe at the Chiefs, said last year.
“He was worthy of an All Black jersey but it was not to be. Ireland are the lucky ones. James has the best and biggest left-foot in the business and can get you 60m on exit. You don’t get many in the back three who communicate as well as he does, very vocal.
“His work-rate is second-to-none and he is forever popping up behind the halfbacks, looking for an opportunity. James is not one of those wings chained to the touchline.
“He has got a phenomenal skill-set and is a real handful. I know. I’ve had to coach against him. It’s not easy.”
Ireland need to unlock Lowe’s attacking game, but they have also got work to do on his defence.
As well as that untimely injury, it was persistent doubts about his persistent defensive issues that held him back from taking the final step into the black jersey.
Trimble won the last seven of his 70 caps working with Farrell as his defence coach and says there is a lot of responsibility on the winger.
“At Leinster you can kind of get away with more because you have a more dominant defence whereas Ireland have struggled defensively,” he said.
“What makes that slightly worse for James Lowe is that Farrell asks a lot of his wingers. He likes his wingers to play games with the first-receiver, he likes to show them one thing and ‘tell them lies’ as he’d describe it.
“Effectively he’s asking the winger to be able to be in two places at once.
“To be able to anticipate that is a real skill, it’s really difficult and it looks really ugly if you’re not used to it.
“That will be depending on him, the backline they play against and who is first-receiver and second-receiver, who is closing the gate.
“I do think wingers always get the brunt, they always score a try in ‘our corner’ but that could be a million other different reasons.
“If you’re part of a defensive system and have defensive qualities inside you, even as far as the ruck if you’ve got dominant tackle you will look like a better defender on the wing because you’ll have more time and you’ll make more accurate reads.
“It’s difficult to isolate one player in terms of what they contribute to the defence and I think Jacob was actually similar, there was probably an over-simplified analysis of what he was doing.”
Farrell doesn’t shy away from the responsibility he hands his wide-men.
“Wing has become a position like No 13 used to be,” he said.
“Everyone used to say it was a very tricky position to be able to defend and attack and have good decision-making, but wing has become a crucial part of the jigsaw for making sure that all sorts of stuff knits together regarding your defence, your backfield, you counter-attack. There’s a lot of know-how that needs to unfold for somebody to be topclass in that position.”
The scrutiny at international level is intense and, while he may have made similar errors at Leinster, he was part of a team that by and large could plot their way back into games.
Ireland games bring with them a far higher degree of scrutiny and pressure, but he’s been backed to find a way to perform.
“The way I like to look at it, as a sportsman you literally have an exam every single week,” he said after the Ashton criticism. “It’s not just one person marking the exam, it’s X amount of people sitting at home on TV and they’re all marking the exam as well and pointing the finger, they’ve all got a voice on social media and they’re not afraid to use it.
“I know it’s part and parcel, I take it on the chin, the sun’s going to come up and I’m gonna get another chance.”
Today’s game should afford Lowe more space than he’s had to date and Trimble hopes to see him play more of his natural game.
“He’s been quite busy, when he carries the ball defenders know about it,” the former Ulster star said.
“He does get a good old leg-drive, tries to get his hands free but it’s just not as easy to do playing at international level.
“Towards the end of the games he’s looked tired because he’s been so busy and got through a big old work-load.
“It’d be such a shame if someone like him, I know he’s 28, but as exciting a talent as he is, if then he felt obliged to kind of manipulate his style into something he thought was suitable to Test matches.
“It is sensible to do that to a certain extent, but I do think he is trying. He’s working really hard. “
That effort is not in doubt, but a struggling Ireland need results from a man capable of delivering those moments of magic that have eluded them thus far.
Perhaps today at the Stadio Olimpico we’ll see the real James Lowe come to the fore and, if so, the team will be the better for it.