James Lowe says he's not exactly disappointed that Ireland won’t have to deal with Antoine Dupont in this season’s Guinness Six Nations.
The France captain will miss the tournament to take in two legs of the Sevens series as he prepares to mount a bid for Olympic gold in Paris this summer.
The Toulouse scrum-half provided a reminder of what Ireland won’t have to face when he almost single-handedly ran Ulster ragged in a 48-24 Champions Cup win on Saturday night.
He racked up two tries, two assists, 26 carries and 127 metres. That was just what could be counted.
The 27-year-old buzzed around field, busying two or three Ulster defenders at a time, offloading at will and always offering a threat.
The last time Ireland played France away, Dupont scored a crucial early try in a 30-24 victory back in February 2022.
"What a shame," said Lowe with a smile when he spoke to RTÉ Sport on Monday.
"No, that dude’s a freak, he could probably pick up any sport and do all right at it.
"I’m not exactly that disappointed he won’t be playing in the Six Nations."
The IRFU has said that it is open to players from the provinces trying out for the Ireland team ahead of the Paris Games but Lowe said he’s just focusing on the main code.
The 31-year-old New Zealand-born wing said: "I dabbled a little bit in Sevens in my late teens.
"I got an invitation to a New Zealand Sevens trials as well through [former coach] Gordon Tietjens but it was my (Under) 20s year so I didn’t go to it and then I didn’t make the 20s so it’s a funny world.
"I’m pretty happy playing 15s. Don’t get me wrong, to play in the Olympics would be absolutely amazing.
"There are probably some other boys who have better qualifications to fit more seamlessly into that Sevens role.
"What Dupont is doing is probably best for him and France.
"It would not surprise me to see him in the Olympics and absolutely tear it up. So, to give him a little bit more time at that, fair play to him.
"There’s probably some more outside backs in the Ireland set-up that would probably get picked over me to play Sevens."
France host Ireland in the opening round of the championship, in Marseille on 2 February, and Andy Farrell is due to name his squad on Wednesday.
"We'll see how Wednesday goes, if I’m lucky enough to get the opportunity to play for Ireland in the Six Nations I’ll take it with both arms," said Lowe.
"The way I look at that game, it’s two teams who are relatively disappointed with their last outing that they had, and [they have] a little bit of a point to prove.
"Marseille, beautiful stadium, to play in France away is no easy feat and we’ll take that challenge head on."
James Lowe opens the scoring against Stade Francais in his first Leinster game of the season. #LEIvSTA
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) January 13, 2024
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Lowe, who has scored 12 tries in 26 Ireland games, made a try-scoring return for Leinster in Saturday's Investec Champions Cup win over Stade Francais.
It was his first game since the World Cup quarter-final loss to the All Blacks as he recovered from a minor injury and spent some time in New Zealand.
"It was lovely, nice wee welcome back in," he said of the 43-7 Pool 4 win.
"Hunger to play rugby is definitely there still. I felt all good, I don’t think I was down to play the full 80.
"I was raring to go and could play 80, the body’s been sore the last couple of days but sure, look, got stuck in [at training] today, we’ll get stuck in tomorrow."
Asked how he had coped with the aftermath of their World Cup exit, he said: "It was a bit of a roller coaster. You go through all the emotions that you can pick.
"It took a fair bit of time to get over it and focus on the next thing. Bit of a roller coaster but the sun kept on coming up, still changing nappies every morning so it's all good, she’s all good.
"I didn’t really talk to too many people about it [in New Zealand], to be fair. It comes down to fine margins.
"They probably looked at their game and said they could have put 20 on us and we looked at it probably the same way.
"That’s what happens at top, high-end level rugby. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t talk to too many of the boys back home."
Leinster finish off their European pool games against Leicester at Welford Road on Saturday.
Watch Munster v Northampton in the Champions Cup on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 4.45pm this Saturday, follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app or listen live on RTÉ Radio 1.
