JAMES LOWE WAS still 19 and playing just his second game of professional rugby when he got his first stinging rebuke from a coach. He’ll never forget it.

This was in 2012. Lowe had broken into the Tasman team in the ITM Cup in his native New Zealand. It was half time against Taranaki and the inexperienced Lowe had thrown a loose pass in the first half.

Kieran Keane, who would go on to coach Connacht, was not impressed.

“Who the f**k threw that?” he demanded in the changing room.

Lowe put his hand up and Keane’s tirade continued.

“He sprayed me,” says Lowe. “I just went completely into my shell.”

Lowe was reeling as Keane moved on to direct his ire at others but the young Kiwi wing got over it with the help of “some pretty smart campaigners” around him, including Campbell Johnstone, who had played for the All Blacks.

They told him to move on quickly and that Lowe had the backing of his team-mates.

“That there was awesome and it helped me to get on with it, being able to back myself and trust everything that I’d done,” says Lowe.

He never held a grudge against Keane.

“It’s a story I tell every now and then because I did learn a lot from KK as a coach. I was very, very fortunate to have had him early on because he was staunch, it’s probably exactly what I needed because I was pretty raw.”

Not that Lowe has changed too much.

“I’m pretty raw still, yeah! But he put some parameters around it which was really, really good.

“I’m very thankful for every coach I’ve had but he was someone who sticks out in my mind who probably narrowed my focus a lot in terms of the game of rugby, not trying to do stupid things all the time and hope that they come off.”

Lowe makes the break before Tadhg Beirne's try. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

Lowe says it still took another three or four years for the penny to drop in terms of cutting loose moments out of his game, but he has never completely lost the joie de vivre that rugby gives him.

To this day, he has a smile on his face much of the time on the pitch, whether when he’s scoring tries or getting under opponents’ skin.

“Yeah, I just have a smile most of the time,” says the 32-year-old. “I used to get bullied for running around with my tongue out as a kid. Like, that’s not something I’m trying to do on purpose!

“Look, I’m just happy to be fit and healthy again. Being able to play rugby for Ireland is something I’ll always cherish and be happy about.”

Lowe doesn’t put major pressure on himself, doing his best to stay relaxed and enjoy the game.

“I think there’s enough pressure going around without having to put more on myself.

“My wife gave birth a couple of weeks ago, that’s more pressure. I just run around, you know?

“What I do, I’ve been doing it for years. It’s very instinctive and I think that’s how I play as well. Rugby is what I do and it’s what I feel I’m good at, I don’t need to put any more pressure on myself that’s already put on.”

Not that he’s always happy.

Lowe wasn’t smiling when he barged in on England flanker Chandler Cunningham-South last weekend after his tackle in the air on Hugo Keenan. The Ireland wing risked having the penalty overturned as he made his displeasure with Cunningham-South known.

“That pissed me off, I’m not going to lie,” says Lowe. “Your man just got the timing wrong. I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose. Another day, Hugo’s on the ground, he’s going to absolutely melt him and barge and go through that ruck.

“Hugo and I work well because we’re so different. He runs all day and I kinda just park up on the wing. So I need him to be fit and healthy for a bit of longevity for my own career, keeping him fit.

Lowe has had his ups and downs in green. One of the low points for him was a 2021 visit to Murrayfield, where Ireland face Scotland again today.

Four years ago, Lowe made some defensive errors and was subsequently dropped by Andy Farrell.

Lowe and Ireland at the airport on Friday. Nick Elliott / INPHO Nick Elliott / INPHO / INPHO

“I wasn’t that flash in that game,” he says. “And then I got dropped for the first time.”

But he bounced back impressively to become a key man for this Ireland team.

He was excellent against the English last weekend, providing several highlight reel moments as he gave three try-scoring passes.

Lowe is always happy when he’s getting that many touches of the ball.

“Sometimes that’s just the way the game goes. That set-piece when I went through [for Tadhg Beirne's try], we actually tried it the one before and Caelan knocked it on so that could easily have been Mack going through and giving the pass. It was the same sort of set-up that we were going for there.

“Shit, it is what it is. I was fortunate enough to get a few carries. Boys were throwing me the ball in space.

“I was pissed off at Hugo at the end, I thought he was allergic to passing me the ball, man! And then when he was, the space was gone. I talked to him after and gave him enough stick so hopefully that doesn’t happen again.”

Today, Lowe looks to use his firepower against a Scotland team desperate to end their losing streak.

“They’re an exciting team that like to play an exciting brand of rugby and we need to make sure that we’re across absolutely everything because they’ve got a 10 who is given an absolute licence to play what’s in front of him,” says Lowe.

“He’s been playing exceptional in the Prem and they’ve got a back three who would match any back three around the world.

“Blair Kinghorn since he’s been at Toulouse has grown arms and legs and obviously you’ve got Duhan van der Merwe who is an exceptional ball carrier and is very abrasive and physical and if we don’t match him there then he can be a handful for any team. Darcy Graham’s feet speak for themselves and what he did on the weekend, he can easily do against most teams.

“So we need to really be on it.”

Scotland have surely been discussing Lowe in a similar light.