WHILE IT was the main attraction in the world of rugby last weekend, Leinster winger James Lowe ultimately opted against watching Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup final between Bordeaux-Begles and Northampton Saints at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

Despite Lowe crossing the whitewash during a frantic final quarter, Leinster suffered an agonising defeat to Northampton at the penultimate stage of Europe’s top-tier in the Aviva Stadium on 3 May.

Although a trip to the zoo with his young family last Saturday morning also played its part, the Ireland international acknowledged it was a somewhat conscious choice not to view a Champions Cup decider that didn’t feature the eastern province for the first time since 2021.

“I’ve got enough pain in my life with kids, I don’t think I need to force anymore! You can say it’s better, but I just didn’t want to watch the game.

“It’s not that I don’t respect the two teams. It just sucks because I wanted to be there. It is what it is. A lot of boys are the same. Some boys could watch it. Some boys watch the replay,” Lowe explained at a Leinster media briefing on Monday.

“I didn’t know how big the zoo was. We took one pram, we’ve got two kids. I’m either carrying Nico [his son], or he is face-planting the whole time. That’s what I did for the morning, and then in the afternoon, I’m literally entertaining him.

“I knew it was on. I was paying attention to my phone, just watching on the app. Fair play to Bordeaux, congratulations and commiserations to Saints. They have both been exceptional this year. It sucked this year that we weren’t there, but that’s how it happened.”

Since his most recent competitive appearance for Leinster — in a 76-5 demolition of Zebre Parma in the United Rugby Championship at the Aviva Stadium on 10 May — Lowe fulfilled his first official duties as a British & Irish Lion at an admin day that was held in London last Sunday week.

This offered him a taste of what to expect when he jets off next month with the rest of the Lions squad for their eagerly-anticipated Tour of Australia, but for now, the New Zealand-born star is firmly focused on ending the 2024-25 season with Leinster on a high.

Although he was quick to point out to the assembled media on Monday that the province has just won the Irish Shield for a fourth year in succession, the past three seasons have seen Leinster missing out on major silverware in both the Investec Champions Cup and the United Rugby Championship.

While their latest quest to claim a fifth European star was halted by Northampton, there is still a chance for Leo Cullen’s men to secure top honours in the URC during the current term.

Three semi-final reversals on the bounce in this competition means Leinster are likely to face a mental challenge as well as a physical one in the coming weeks, but they will have to negotiate their way past Scarlets in a quarter-final at the Aviva this Saturday (kick-off 3pm) before they can think about finally achieving a last-four league victory.

Yet their ultimate ambition is to lift the URC crown next month, and Lowe believes this would be a fitting way for departing players such as the Gloucester-bound Ross Byrne and the soon-to-be-retired Cian Healy to end their time with Leinster.

“When I look around the changing room and the people who aren’t going to be here next year, the two you obviously think of are Ross Byrne and Cian Healy. Some of the best days of your life are when you win silverware together. For Ireland, we have been able to do that in recent years, but we haven’t been able to transfer that with Leinster,” Lowe added.

“It doesn’t mean that because you have won with Ireland, you are going to win with Leinster. You still have to come back here and perform on the biggest of days and under the most amount of pressure. That’s what we want to do.

“We can’t let Cian Healy leave Leinster without another silver medal around his neck again. It’s not doing him justice. It’s not doing Ross Byrne justice. Those boys watched Leinster at Donnybrook years and years ago. That’s hopefully the plan for the next three weeks.”

Daire Walsh