Half the world away: watching James Lowe’s long journey to top of the Irish game
Of all those currently involved in the Irish system, there are few who are better placed to describe James Lowe’s journey to being a bona fide international than Leinster assistant coach Andrew Goodman.
Natives of Nelson on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay in New Zealand, the pair first came across each other when Goodman was Lowe’s PE teacher in Nelson College. Before embarking on a two-season stint as a Leinster player from 2012 to 2014, he featured alongside Lowe in the colours of their local side Tasman and also coached the Irish winger for the same team when he returned from a spell with the Chiefs in Super Rugby.
Following a subsequent five-year gap, the duo were eventually reunited when Leo Cullen drafted Goodman into his coaching set-up as a replacement for Felipe Contepomi last summer.
“It’s a pretty small place in New Zealand, Nelson. There’s a lot of Irish supporters in our little town of Nelson now, keeping a close eye on him! His old school, Nelson College, are very proud of him as well. It has been great to see him come over here and get the opportunity,” Goodman remarked at a Leinster media briefing in UCD yesterday.
“Just for him to embrace the Irish as his team and his home. He’s bought a house in Dublin now. He’s firmly locked in here. I’ve enjoyed watching him and seeing him do his thing on the big stage has been pretty cool.”
Although Lowe was one of three players in the match day 23 for the Grand Slam clincher against England in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday to qualify through World Rugby’s residency rule – Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Park being the others – the strength of the Irish system was nevertheless on full display last weekend.
Aside from the fact that the bulk of those who featured at the Aviva are homegrown products, the future of Irish rugby was showcased in the Ireland U20s side that secured a second consecutive Grand Slam at Musgrave Park on Sunday with a thrilling victory over their own English counterparts.
Every one of those to play in the latter success have come through either the club or schools system in Ireland and Goodman is eager for some of the Leinster contingent from the squad to make the step up to the provincial grade.
“It’s obviously a credit to all the provinces in the Irish system around what they’re doing at schools level. I’m pretty excited about some of these backs. Looking forward to getting my hands stuck on them in a couple of weeks when they’ve had a bit of a break, and they can come back into training with us. Keep developing their games.”
Goodman also revealed that Leinster will await the results of a scan on the groin injury that forced Jonathan Sexton out of the closing minutes of his Six Nations farewell last Saturday, before determining how long the Irish skipper might be sidelined for. He is definitely ruled out of this weekend’s United Rugby Championship clash with the Stormers, though Goodman feels the province are well placed to cope with his absence.
“The scans, we’ll see how they come back, but Ross [Byrne] has done a great job for us earlier this year. We’ve got Harry [Byrne] back now, who has had a string of games together. Frawls [Ciaran Frawley] is back in the mix.
“The young boys, Charlie [Tector] and Sam [Prendergast], are both there. Five pretty good options there that are all very capable of playing great rugby in the system that we do play,” Goodman added.