A schoolgirl by the side of the pitch pushes her autograph into the face of a friend. “Look. I’ve got Tadhg Beirne and Hugo Keenan,” she says. Well, it has been three years. Everyone needs a moment to decide just who is who in the flesh.
Over 50 Leinster players in their training kit in pods and teams on the synthetic surface at Longford RFC, the road closed off as children with their scraps of paper and pens swirl around, a Hamiltons Ice Cream van and a throng from that trailing on to the grass pitch at the front of the Sin Bin bar and restaurant.
The Leinster squad were in Dundalk in the morning before a bust-out, cross-country dash for another preseason bout of rugby evangelicalism. The first tranche of public workouts since the smite of the Old Testament pandemic has drawn several hundred.
Their reward is an early glimpse of Leinster’s newest arrival, centre Charlie Ngatai, All Black 1141, Tadhg Furlong sitting behind the goal, Keenan, with an ancestry from round these parts, hugging it out with relatives and James Lowe, the serial scene stealer, his hair in a bun with shaven sides, his body rested after the summer tour and willing to set the mood.
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Walking behind Keenan with his arms spread and the forefinger of both hands pointing at the fullback’s head “boring, boring,” he silently mouths. Everyone but Keenan can see the mime. Scene stealer. Keenan turns.
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“There’s a bit of baby sitting playing with Lowey,” he says right back at him. “No ... no he’s brilliant. He’s really kicked on which is one of the reason’s that Irish team is so successful.
“He adds something a bit different, doesn’t he that X-factor. He’s not exactly built the same as me, is he. He’ll do some of the try scoring for me, I’ll do some of the running for him.”
That ends 1-1. Lowe, along with Jamison Gibson-Park, Ngatai and new coach Andrew Goodman have been part of the Kiwi flavouring of Leinster. With the disappointment of last season and league and European Cup glory going to South Africa and France, there is a sense of qualitative change being needed. In that, former Irish flanker Seán O’Brien and the physical edge he can bring is not being overlooked.
“It’s fascinating really, the James, Jamison dynamic, even the Michael Bent dynamic out in New Zealand as well, which was amazing to see,” says head coach Leo Cullen.
“But the two lads, I remember the conversation I had with Lowey about trying to get him here. I remember because James was with Tasman and they were trying to progress and I was trying to get him here early to get him registered for the first couple of rounds for Europe, but Tasman advanced to the playoffs, so he stayed.
“I was trying to convince him that it would be a good time because in three years he would be eligible to play for Ireland. I could hear him at the other end of the phone thinking, what is this guy talking about?
“To see him now play for Ireland, it’s amazing. To come over, I know the ruling divides opinion, but for those two guys ...”
Lowe goes back longer than anyone else with Goodman, who also played in an injury-blighted stint with Leinster before moving to Japan and then finally he ended up as a coach with Crusaders.
Lowe also played with Ngatai before he came to Ireland. There are kinships and connections all over.
“Yeah, yeah, I played with Charlie,” says Lowe. “I think we are very lucky to have picked him up. He’s an awesome skill set, physical.
“He was probably on the brink of retirement with his head at one stage. He’s gone to France. They won the Challenge Cup last year. I think from round one you are going to see Charlie Ngatai light it up that’s for sure.
“Yeah Goody was my PE teacher,” he adds. “I would have been 16 at Nelson College. Him and his family are steeped in our hometown of Nelson. His last name in rugby circles carries a serious amount of weight. He happened to be my cricket coach, my rugby coach at school. He was my captain in the Tassie for my first two years.
“He literally came into the room (at Leinster) like, lads I know all of you know how to play rugby. All he is there to do is implement a structure that everyone can play. He’s got zero ego, which is awesome. I think he is going to transform this backline yeah.”
Fresh from the double Irish strike against New Zealand and some kickback time at home, Lowe’s summer has been a rugby reckoning, so strange that in his head it never could have happened. Growing up in Nelson, to be an All Black was both every kids’ dream and preposterous.
Then, beating the All Blacks twice in New Zealand playing for another national team wasn’t so much not part of the narrative as more of a bizarre concept.
“Never in a million years,” he says. “One, represent Ireland and two go back to New Zealand and win a Test series,” he says. “I still remember Keith Earls saying, Jesus the last time we played here we got beaten by 40. In Wellington you know. It was cool.”
There is also a driving pragmatism to Lowe that comes with playing for Leinster after he and New Zealand decided their ways should part. His decision to come to Ireland was both career and life changing.
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Certainly, his ambitions growing up in New Zealand were real and heartfelt. But professional sport teaches you to constantly reset and react, put things to one side. But beating the team he adored?
“Nah. Not bittersweet,” he says dismissively. “I played professionally in New Zealand for five years and was knocking on the door and the door wasn’t opening. I made a decision at 24 to leave and explore uncharted territory.
“I’d only left home for three or four years but I’d never really experienced life on the other side of the world. It was a good opportunity to leave the nest and challenge myself in a new environment without the safety net of family and friends. We landed on our feet my wife and I. We’re absolutely stoked.
“You know to go back to New Zealand, I gave out a few jerseys to people who I thought deserved them because they helped me along my journey. Now we are coming back to Ireland to carry it on.”
The former schools’ athletics champion and New Zealand under-15s basketball player, like the rest of the squad, is ready to dive into another season with residual hurt from how it ended but energised by the summer tour.
There won’t be another New Zealand series in his Irish career. But there are always green shoots at the start of any campaign, more so now with Leinster’s season book ended by Wellington and a World Cup in France.
“Jesus, I got absolutely mauled out there, it was mayhem,” says Lowe warming to the energy of the kids, ready to plunge in head first once again.
