AS USUAL, JAMES Lowe is in talkative mood. The Leinster winger hasn’t yet settled into his chair and already he’s naming and shaming some of his teammates for their less colourful interactions with the media.

“In fairness, it’s probably a reflection of the proper upbringing and how it’s regimented,” he eventually concedes, adding that he sometimes enjoys being put forward for media duty.

“I do but that’s because I know the boys are horrific at it as well. It’s just how I am. I don’t say anything too crazy but, look, it’s probably a reflection on me.”

Later on, when Lowe and assistant coach Robin McBryde have rotated through the Leinster media room, McBryde will describe the winger as “an energiser” around the squad.

It easy to see why. Over the course of a 15 minute chat, Lowe sprinkles humour into the conversation, but always tries to give his honest answer.

We even briefly veer off track when the topic of being so far from home at Christmas is raised.

“It sucks, I’m not going to lie… I haven’t spent Christmas back with my parents for six years. That’s disappointing but it’s what you sign up for when you sign overseas.”

What are his Christmas plans this year?

“Don’t tell the kids but I’m actually fucking Santa this year, because I don’t have any kids! It actually sucks man. So we’re heading over to Charlie Ngatai’s and they’ve all got kids, so they were like ‘James, your job this year is Santa.’ So that’s what my Christmas is going to look like.”

Lowe will be joined at Ngatai’s house by Michael Ala’alatoa, Jamison Gibson-Park, Jason Jenkins and Andrew Goodman. “Literally just the outcasts,” as he puts it.

Lowe makes a break against Racing last Saturday. Dave Winter / INPHO Dave Winter / INPHO / INPHO

It’s shaping up to be a good Christmas for Lowe and his Leinster teammates. Following a frustrating start to the season which saw Lowe ruled out of the November internationals, the winger quickly slotted back into the swing of things in the wins over Ulster and Racing. Beat Gloucester on Friday night, and the province will step into Christmas with 10 wins from their opening 10 games.

One of the key messages early this week has been to keep the foot down and not let any complacency slip in after such a convincing win in France on Saturday.

We looked back to a couple of years when we had Wasps at the RDS, we put 50 on them then went to Toulouse and lost. So now we’ve gone and put 40 on a good Racing side, it’s about coming back and making sure that doesn’t matter, what matters is how you prepare throughout the week for another performance of equal calibre.”

For Lowe, there’s the added incentive of getting back to his impactful best ahead of a massive year. After a challenging start to life on the Test stage, the 30-year-old is now one of a handful of players who feel crucial to Andy Farrell’s gameplan. 

As well as his obvious attacking talents, his defensive work is now much improved and his kicking game has become a major weapon for both Leinster and Ireland. There’s a reason he played every minute of the three-Test series win against the All Blacks. Creating history with Ireland on his home patch made his extended post-tour stay in New Zealand all the sweeter.

“It was awesome because no-one could give me shit! That was the best part, I could walk around anywhere as free as a bird!

“No, it was really, really nice. Obviously four and a bit weeks on tour, and then going home, back to Nelson to decompress with friends and family was very, very nice. I spent a good couple of weeks there and then came back over and got some sun. But the family were absolutely stoked. My old boy hasn’t taken off his Irish jumper yet.”

Then a setback. During some optional conditioning work in the pre-season with Leinster, Lowe turned and felt a sharp pain in his calf. It saw him miss Leinster’s opening eight fixtures as well as the full November Test window. 

Lowe shrugs his shoulders. “The moral of the story is don’t do extra conditioning.” 

Sitting out Ireland’s November games was “tough”, but he soon found some perspective. 

Like, I’m not getting much younger, you’re almost at the peak of your powers and then tear a calf and you’re out… But I watched that first Test match with Robbie [Henshaw], so that put it into perspective because he’d been in the whole time then unfortunately did his hammy the week leading in and then did it the week after.

“Sure look, it is what it is and it’s part of the game, but I’m fresh and ready and looking forward to Friday.”

Friday sees Gloucester head to the RDS for a round two Champions Cup clash. Another chance for Leinster to show they are ready to challenge again after last season’s heartbreaking loss to La Rochelle in the final. Another chance for Lowe to show he’s ready to put his early-season troubles behind him.

The province certainly look well placed to back up last weekend’s impressive win against Racing with a big performance at home, given how they responded to the travel chaos en route to Le Havre, which saw the squad delayed in Dublin airport, before being held up in air due to heavy fog and left waiting for transport at the airport.

“Ah yeah. It was a bit of a shitshow, let’s be honest,” Lowe says.

“We were just laughing and wondering ‘jeez, what’s going to happen next?’ sort of thing. Woke up Saturday morning, the boys were ready to go. You could see that in their eyes.

“We could have turned up an hour before kick-off. The performance was probably a reflection of the week and the preparation we had done. I had a feeling that a performance like that was going to come no matter what.

“We were just stoked to… get there and then put in a performance that we had planned throughout the whole week. We knew them inside out and it came down to doing the basics. The fact that the forwards hit 25 out of 25 in the lineout probably shows mentally where the boys were at. Fair play, they stood up and then we were able to score a few points.”

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