JAMES LOWE insists he can put friendships to one side when Leinster battle Munster at Croke Park tomorrow.

During this year’s Six Nations odyssey with Ireland, Lowe counted Munster men Calvin Nash, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony as international team-mates.

But given the way he has embraced the fixture since joining Leinster in 2017, Lowe has no qualms locking horns with his pals.

And with six tries to his name from 11 appearances against Munster, the Reds are an opponent winger Lowe enjoys facing more than most.

He quipped: “It’s some rivalry isn’t it? There’s not many club teams that can almost already sell 80,000 tickets for round four.

“There’s not many teams that can do it and to be involved with Leinster with a rivalry that I have sort of inherited, it’s pretty exciting.

“There’s a mutual hatred between the boys. As much as I love to see them succeed and I play with a lot of them, when it comes to it, if Casey is in front of me, I don’t care.

“If Calvin is in front of me, don’t care. I’m sure they’re saying the exact same thing on the other side.”

While his move to the Blues had already been confirmed by then, Leinster lock RG Snyman was a Munster player when the sides last met in December last year.

And having previously played against him on his Reds debut back in August 2020 as well as this summer’s tour of South Africa, Lowe finally got a chance to feature alongside Snyman in Leinster’s URC win away to Benetton last week.

Lowe has only counted Snyman as a clubmate for a short spell of time.

But the winger’s initial impressions of the two-time World Cup winner have been positive.

Lowe explained: “He’s an incredibly nice guy.

“He’s a crazy good athlete, he’s physically larger than life and he played very well. Hopefully we can keep him injury-free.”

Snyman is not the only former Munster player within the Leinster ranks as new attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal played for the Reds from 2015 to 2020.

Lowe was familiar with the Christchurch native from his time back in New Zealand and hailed him as a fine addition to the backroom team.

He added: “When I first met Tyler I would have been 17 or 18 and he would have been 20, in Christchurch. He was behind four world-class first-fives at the Crusaders.

“He’s very open-minded about how he plays the game. He has simplified a lot of things for us.

“It took us a few weeks to understand it but I think on Saturday we were pretty free flowing.

“Boys were able to express themselves in certain ways.

“It’s good we are all learning at the same time.”