James Lowe: the New Zealander from Ireland who dreamed of the All Blacks

For three players in the green jersey of Ireland, Saturday night’s match at Soldier Field in Chicago will be like taking a closer look once again at what could have been, but wasn’t. The ‘sliding door’ that led them to think that, rather than risk not wearing it, it would be more likely to find it against their opponents. Even if by now, more or less, they will have gotten used to playing against the All Blacks. There will be three New Zealanders who will wear the Ireland shirt on Saturday evening in the challenge against the nation that gave them birth and raised them: James Lowe, Jamison Gibson Park and Bundee Aki. An emotion for them that is obviously very different and particular compared to all the other great international challenges, but which also involves all those who have known them during their careers in their homeland.

the first coach

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As in the case of winger James Lowe, 33 years old, 40 caps and 17 tries with Ireland. He was born in Nelson, a seaside town north of the South Island, which among other things hosted Italy’s headquarters at the 2011 World Cup and where on 14 May 1870 the first rugby match was played on New Zealand soil. “If he had stayed in New Zealand, he would certainly have been an All Black,” said Peter Griggs, who coached Lowe at college between 2008 and 2010. “He was one step away from the All Blacks, but he was always a free person, a free mind and capable of doing slightly strange things. I was a bit pissed off when they didn’t pick him, because, as I remember, there was one tour where they only took a team to Fiji or somewhere in the And if they had made his debut, he couldn’t have changed for several years. I admit, I would have preferred him to have played for the All Blacks. I always wondered what he might have thought the first few times he had to sing the Irish anthem. I understood it the last time I spoke to him, when it was clear that his heart was now in Ireland. Griggs also admits that he made an error of judgment on the beautiful foot that Lowe later demonstrated he possessed: “With the ball in his hand he was dangerous and fast, that’s why we didn’t want him to kick. At college he was very popular, practically a hero. In the team locker room we have photos of our former players who became All Blacks, but on one side there is a practically life-size one of him. Every time he comes back here, he brings with him some material for the team, he changes and trains with us, he is so humble that he even lends himself to taking the toilet boy, he hasn’t forgotten where he came from.” Griggs also reveals that when he was chosen for college, Lowe had a serious physical problem: “He was 15 years old and we didn’t usually take kids that young. He had a form of arthritis caused by an infection that forced him to stay out of action for a year. It wasn’t easy to recover, it took all the support of his family and school. But we waited for him because we knew we had a great prospect in our hands.”

captain

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Then there is a place, still in the south island, which today finds itself rooting for Ireland because of Lowe: it is the Waimea Old Boys Rugby Club, where, after leaving college, he played and won the championship. “More precisely, we only support Ireland if the All Blacks aren’t involved,” specifies Dion Mytton, who coached Lowe at the club. “There’s one of us wearing an Ireland shirt, it’s tough, he’s part of our family, but we always hope that the All Blacks win. Ireland comes, let’s say, in second place.” Mytton who immediately made Lowe his captain, above all for one reason: “He came from Nelson College where he was considered a superstar and in his first year with us he immediately found himself dealing no longer with boys like him, but with men made and finished. So he found himself faced with the first difficulties, especially mental. And he had to find the right position, but in a year he had already completed his journey. And making him captain pushed him to grow quickly”.

Maori and lions

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And just last summer Lowe made history by becoming the third player to have played against and for the British & Irish Lions, after Irishman Tom Reid (1955 and 1959) and Englishman Riki Flutey (2004 and 2009). In 2017, however, the then 24-year-old Lowe challenged the Lions with the New Zealand Maori shirt in Rotorua (10-32), and then collected two caps on the tour of Australia last June. “My mother is Maori and this made my convocation possible,” Lowe later said. “I faced those who would soon be my Leinster teammates, such as Tadhg Furlon, Johnny Sexton, Sean O’Brien and Jack McGrath, I played fullback with Nehe Milner-Skudder and Rieko Ioane on the wings. It wasn’t an easy test, in the end I swapped shirts with Leigh Halfpenny.” Three years later, thanks to citizenship rules, Lowe would make his debut for Ireland, with whom he would go on to win two Six Nations. And in 2021 he will also score his first and only All Blacks try, in the 29-20 win in Dublin. “I never thought the day would come when I would score a try for the All Blacks,” he later said. “Since I was a child I dreamed of being an All Black, but it’s a common thing for all New Zealanders who play rugby. At a certain point I gave up on that dream, I wasn’t good enough when I was at my best. But having been able to challenge the strongest team in the world, the legends of rugby, listen to the anthem and face the haka, it was still making that dream come true, albeit from the other side.” And he will always find himself on the other side on Saturday in Chicago, even if by now it will be the seventh time and he will have gotten used to it.