New Leinster signing James Lowe will come face to face with some of his new team-mates when the Maori All Blacks face the Lions tomorrow, but he revealed is was his old friends that convinced him to move to Dublin.
Lowe starts at fullback for the Maori All Blacks in Rotorua tomorrow morning, but will start next season with Leinster, having agreed a move to Ireland back in March.
The 24-year-old back said that it had been fellow Maori All Blacks players Hayden Triggs and Jamison Gibson-Park who sold him on Leinster after both players spoke in glowing terms of the province.
Reflecting on his imminent move to Ireland, Lowe said: "It came around quite quick. I guess in a way when you’re going overseas you have to do your homework and everything I did came back positive.
"I’ve got two friends over there in Hayden Triggs and Jamison Gibson-Park and I spoke to both of them.
"They both spoke very highly of the club and how professional it was and how’s it’s a challenging environment."
Lowe is young at 24 but already has a wealth of experience, having spent two years with Tasman and two years with the Chiefs and now feels ready for his next challenge.
"That’s really what I’m still looking for, I feel like I’ve got more to give back to the game being relatively young and the opportunity of a lifetime came up in one of the coolest cities in the world, you can’t turn that down," he insisted.
"I’m really looking forward to it, to challenging myself in a new environment, learning a lot about myself and hopefully travelling the world.
"If I’m lucky, I’ve got 10 years left in this game so I want to make the most of it."
We'll have a live blog on RTE.ie and the News Now App on Japan v Ireland from 5.45am on Saturday morning (kick-off 6am) followed by live blog and live radio commentary on Maori All Blacks v Lions (kick-off 8.35am).
