ON THE FIELD, James Lowe can appear like a chaotic force of nature.
And off it, his laid-back demeanour might give you the impression he’ll float on with the breeze.
The Leinster wing carries an unmistakable and inimitable energy onto the field. A boxy presence crammed full boundless enthusiasm, there’s a bounce in his step, a smile on his face and a mop of hair that continuously needs to be reined back in between plays.
Yet nothing happens by accident in Lowe’s world. He is meticulous in his preparation and rigid in his routines.
Indeed, even that hair has borne some evidence of his reluctance to veer far from the norm as he made sure to wait until he was back home in New Zealand, with a friend he trusted, before giving it an overdue tidy-up early this year.
In his spare time, his first priority is to prepare himself for the next day at the office.
“I like my own time. When I’m at work I’m full of energy, I’m excited,” he says.
“First thing in the morning – people kind of get sick of me, they go, ‘how are you so full of beans at this time in the morning?’
“I’ll walk into my physio at 7am and I’d go ‘ugh, why are you tired, come on mate’. But when I get home I’m beached out on the couch.”
Even James Lowe needs a break.
“I think it’s just that I’m pretty organised in how I try to do things. I don’t like to change things around very often. I’m not going to do something out of the gate.
“Tomorrow I’ve got running first thing in the morning. I’m not going to change anything. That’s how I’ve always been very system-orientated.”
Lowe has combined this meticulous streak with a love of open, thrilling all-action rugby from an early age.
Through the years he has counted Jeff Wilson, Christian Cullen, Israel Dagg and, of course, Jonah Lomu among his idols in rugby. But when it came to doing a primary school research project, his young eyes turned to one Josevata Rokocoko.
“I had one of his first interviews when he’d first cracked it at 19,” Lowe tells The42.
“I had to watch his interview and make a wee storyboard and photos – cut-outs from magazines of him doing the dishes!”
Casting his mind back to the early days of the Fijian flyer, who went on to score 46 tries for New Zealand, Lowe can’t help but rue the absence of a completed circle.
“I could have easily been marking him last year. Man it’s a small enough world and crazy how things could have unfolded.”
The former Chiefs star spoke last week about the sliding doors moment – specifically, a collision with Jordan Taufua – that saw him miss out on a likely All Blacks cap against Samoa and ultimately allowed him pitch up in the northern hemisphere.
Coming up on two years since he moved to Leinster, he has been back home just once. And while he has summered with men in the same boat like Scott Fardy and Jamison Gibson-Park, the life of a professional who must travel to far corners of the world for the best career opportunities has its fair share of everyday challenges.
“The toughest thing is being away from family more than anything,” says the always-affable 27-year-old.
“Getting away from that unit of people you’ve got around you who you trust and know so well. Not just family, but friends as well, people you grew up with. They were there when times were tough and they were there when times were good. That’s the most difficult thing.”
The pang for home was particularly sharp in recent weeks. Not because the “sideways rain” had begun battering his window to signal the end of summer, but because his sister gave birth to her second child. So there’s a nephew and a brand new niece on his list of reasons he might pine for home.
“Missing things like that always does suck, but my family understand my reason for coming over this side of the world at, probably, an earlier age than some.
“This is helping me progress and help everyone back home and I’m making sure I use the time to the best of my ability so that, when rugby’s said and done, I’m set up for life (after rugby).”
When we first came here it was daunting. You had no idea what to expect. And that was like jumping into the deep end. But we’re swimming, man”
The trappings of living in south Dublin and the make-up of the Leinster squad have also taken a little getting used to. Lowe is nothing if not a candid speaker, and he often saves a knowing mention for the post-code he now calls home, D4.
Born and raised in Nelson on New Zealand’s south island before moving north to Hamilton, Lowe was used to a veritable melting pot of Caucasians, Maori and Pacific Islanders. Living in south Dublin and playing for a Leinster side built on the throughput from fee-paying private schools, he is acutely aware that his upbringing has been quite different to many of his team-mates.
“You can’t not be. To be fair, I’d say Leinster hasn’t got a very diverse player pool. You’ve got some boys from the country… even a lot of the country boys, they still went to schools where their parents are playing 20,000 a year for them to go to school.
“Everyone’s heart’s in the right place and we’re all in the same boat rowing the same direction. That diversity isn’t quite there.”
“Credit where credit’s due… there’s this pathway created within Dublin and south Dublin in particular, that pathway’s there. It’s not the fella’s fault they come from an affluent background. It’s just a different way. They’re good people and their heart’s in the right place and we’ve all got the same common goal. But Jesus, they’re a special bunch of humans.”
Lowe feels he is on track to be fit for the start of the new Pro14 season with Leinster, who will not begin the campaign until 28 September due to the World Cup. He’s straining at the leash to play again after a long, drawn-out pre-season, but it will feel odd when a player of his talents is plying his trade off-Broadway while Japan holds centre stage.
With the time difference and Pro14 scheduling ensuring there are no fixture clashes, he will work as a pundit on eir Sport’s coverage of the tournament.
He jokes that he has promised to help Tommy Bowe with his pronunciation of the Tongan forward pack, but he is deadly serious about the challenge of showing he has another string to his bow.
The former Chiefs and New Zealand Maori wing remains very well-connected in Kiwi circles. And though his tales of team-mates have garnered deserved attention, it’s his ability to analyse and assess the sport that he is keen to showcase.
“I’m looking forward to it, it’s something I never thought I’d do.
“It’s relatively challenging. I could chew the ear off most people, but now I’ve got to have a bit of factual stuff behind there. What I’m saying could be scrutinised around the world.
“I’ve an eye for rugby. When things are unfolding I understand why. When you see the way teams are playing, after round one there’ll be an awesome picture of what teams are trying to do.
“We’re at the stage at the moment where nobody wants to show their hand. Yeah, we’ve had a huge build-up, all this training all these games, but I can tell you now: there are gonna be teams who haven’t shown 15 % of the stuff they’ve got planned and what’s gonna unfold.
“That’s the exciting thing: 90% of teams will be doing the same thing, but calling it something different.
“It’s going to be very interesting to see what’s around the corner.”
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