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'Sick obsession' - Leinster's James Lowe determined to deliver silverware

Updated / Saturday, 4 May 2024 12:19
James Lowe (L) and team-mates during the 2022 final loss to La Rochelle
James Lowe (L) and team-mates during the 2022 final loss to La Rochelle

James Lowe has described Leinster's quest for a fifth Investec Champions Cup title as a "sick obsession".

The New Zealand native was a non-playing squad member the last time the side lifted the trophy in 2018.

Lowe, a regular member of the starting team, didn’t make the match-day squad against Racing 92 in Bilbao with Leinster only permitted two non-European players in their panel.

At that point, Lowe, who joined the club in 2017, was non-Ireland qualified and Kiwi Jamison Gibson-Park and Australian Scott Fardy took up the allocated spots.

However, Lowe didn’t let the day go to waste and speaking to reporters ahead of this afternoon’s Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton at Croke Park (5.30pm, live on RTÉ), recalled his memories of the famous day in the Basque Country.

"We were in a bakery at nine o’clock in the morning and we weren’t having croissants," said the 31-year-old, in line for his 78th Leinster appearance today.

"That was a cracker of a day in Bilbao. The boys performed so well. There are photos of the day, who was it, Fards, Jack [Conan] and James Ryan?

"There is a famous one of them going for the charge-down on the drop goal attempt right at the end.

"That sticks in my memory. Hopefully one day there will be memories of an effort by us in a final that leads to us winning it.

"[I] probably took it for granted [that we’d win another one sooner], I’m not going to lie.

"I didn’t play in that Bilbao game but the training week, the prep leading up to it, I remember that so well and the boys performed so well on the day and were able to get over the line.

"Look, we have been trying ever since then and we have put ourselves in a very good position now to give ourselves another crack and that’s what we will do.

"We are going to keep knocking on the door and hopefully one day it will open."

James Lowe (L) and Jamison Gibson-Park celebrate in 2018

Since then, Lowe has appeared in three finals (2019, 2022 and 2023) and lost each one. In addition, he was yellow-carded in the 2021 semi-final defeat to La Rochelle.

"Yeah, it's a sick obsession, man," he said of Leinster’s journey over the last five seasons, which included one-score defeats in the last two deciders.

"It's heartbreaking. Every single year you try so hard and on the day it's been so cruel to us for so many years, but we'll keep going after it and please God [it will happen].

"Every year we try put ourselves in the best possible way, shape and form that we can.

"It's funny, it's such a fickle game because we're talking how many points in those last two finals?

"If something else had happened, if a call had gone a different way, if we'd been given a pen at a different time or the interpretation of a ref [was different] we wouldn't be talking about it.

"It's the same throughout all the tight matches.

"We can sit here and argue about every point, but we're obsessed, like you said, and come [kick-off] it's all hands on deck and we're going to do our best to put our best foot forward and hopefully come away with a result."

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Watch Leinster v Northampton in the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals from 4.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1

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