JAMES LOWE MAKES his final bow for Leinster in their latest URC final appearance on Friday night.

The Ireland winger will definitely be missed, Leo Cullen acknowledged, after a deal failed to be struck to keep him at the province ahead of the World Cup next year and Lowe accepted a contract in Japan instead.

Lowe starts the final against the Bulls after breaking Leinster’s try-scoring record in the victory over the Lions in the quarter-finals.

While Cullen has already made three changes for the decider, he is now also sweating on the fitness of lock Joe McCarthy, who sat out Wednesday’s Captain’s Run at Croke Park with a knock.

At the same time, the head coach has an eye on the evolution of his squad. As is the case every year, the players leaving after the final showdown will have to be replaced and that’s the bottom line.

Cullen reminisced about Lowe’s earliest days at the province, and laughed again as he remembered an occasion when himself and his wife went to dinner with the Kiwi.

“James has been brilliant for the club,” he continued. “It’s amazing to think what he has gone on to achieve with Leinster and Ireland since then. He is a colourful character and he will definitely be missed.”

Yet Leinster will move on when Lowe says his goodbyes to the fans at Croker, as they always do.

“There’s always these things across the board and you could go into every single example of players that are moving,” Cullen remarked.

“It’s the nature of the business that we are in. The business gets done, and you move on and that’s all you can do really.

“Simon Broughton, our academy manager, will have seven or eight fresh faces to come in and everyone just gets a year older in the building and that’s just the way it is every year. We are in the growing business primarily rather than recruitment.

“So you retain what you are retaining from the senior group and then you recruit from the system. That’s why I would never get bogged down by… listen, we understand that people move for all sorts of reasons, and we move on.”

Cullen had praise for all the players who are leaving, from Jerry Cahir, who starts the final at loosehead at the end of his debut season as a pro to “warrior” Luke McGrath and onto Ciarán Frawley, Will Connors, Rabah Slimani, Rieko Ioane and Lowe.

He had particular praise for how Ioane had developed over the course of his season with the province and the All Black has again been selected to start at centre ahead of Garry Ringrose.

Rieko Ioane (file photo). Dan Clohessy / INPHO Dan Clohessy / INPHO / INPHO

“It’s great to see him grow as the weeks have gone on, I think everyone has seen that,” Cullen said.

“Even the way he communicates some of that as well, probably having been in a bit of a hole, or a bit of a rut is probably the polite way of saying it, before he came here.

“Now his love for the game, you can it every day, and he is coming more out of himself in the group every day and that’s a credit to the group we have as well.

“The next group is the next group. I have loved working with all those people I talked about, I’m very passionate about them, and you would love all these journeys to go on for evermore.

“But we all understand that’s not the reality of top-end sport because nothing stays the same forever and we need to evolve and continue to bring young guys through, keep that pressure from below and the younger cohort to push through and keep the pressure on the older guys.”

Leinster’s academy has been the bedrock of their success over the past 15 years, but clever recruitment has been a vital addition to that.

As yet, the province has been very quiet in that department ahead of next season and, with Leinster being forced to cough up 40% of the wages of their large contingent of centrally-contracted players, supporters fear that has affected the province’s spending power.

“Ah, let’s have a more positive spin on it if we can,” said Cullen, when that was put to him.

“As I said, it’s on to the next academy guy coming through and putting pressure on the senior guy.

“Luke McGrath at one stage was getting his first cap and now he is over 200 or whatever it is. That’s the evolution of the team. We’re all comfortable with that.”

Leinster will expect an early onslaught from the Bulls after beating the South Africans 32-7 in last year’s final. Cullen said his side will look to counter-act that by being as clinical as they were in attack 12 months ago, and as resolute in defence.

“It’s funny when you watch the game back,” he said. “Obviously, some of our team are the same and then there’s other guys, obviously, it would have been the camera panning to the crowd that are going to be playing the game on Friday.

“Caelan (Doris) is an example, Jamison (Gibson-Park), a few other guys as well. And Bulls are similar. They’ve got guys that wouldn’t have been involved in the game last year than are in the green this year.

“So it’s the same for both teams. Whether that makes us stronger or them stronger, we’ll find out.”

Handré Pollard and Marco van Staden of the Bulls. Ewan Bootman / INPHO Ewan Bootman / INPHO / INPHO

One of those newer faces for the Bulls is Springbok star Handré Pollard, who was playing in the Premiership final on the same day as that URC decider.

“Hopefully, he kicks like he did in the semi-final because he’s missed quite a few that day,” said Cullen, referring to the out-half’s three missed penalties against Glasgow.

“I wouldn’t be necessarily trying to rely on him doing that again because he is the master when it comes to a final of kicking pressure kicks.

“So, yes, I would be a lot happier if we have a decent lead at the end of the game. But that’s going to take a serious amount of work.

“Discipline in big games is massively important – particularly when you’ve got a very experienced goalkicker like they have.”