James Lowe is a late replacement for Mack Hansen at the Ireland press conference on Tuesday.
The huddled mass of reporters at the HPC in Blanchardstown expect the nation's second best hat-trick hero to chat for a few minutes but the Connacht full-back has other places to be.
Lowe, however, is an able replacement, amiable and chatty, and well able to throw in a harmless dig at his team-mate who scored three last weekend, and even his boss Andy Farrell.
He walks in, ties his long hair up and announces, ' hello, my name is James', he stops for a minute to look over the shoulder of a reporter and check out the score in Ireland's World Cup U17 match against Switzerland.
The double Rugby World Cup champions are in town but this is soccer country again, for the moment at least.
"I grew up in New Zealand and so we called it soccer when we were there, but it was for the posh boys actually, soccer," replies the Leinster winger when asked about his relationship to the code.
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"It's completely different over here. I don't want to stereotype too much but no, I didn't play soccer. It was never a thing.
"Coming over here, obviously everyone's football mad, aren't they?
"And a few of the boys went to the [Portugal] game on Thursday night and said the Aviva was absolutely jumping. What a result.
"We were watching it in the team room and, you know, you're sort of sitting there pre-game thing and it's like, we've got a chance, you know, backs against the wall, and it's such a typical Irish thing, backs against the wall.
"I mean, Troy Parrott.
"I mean, Jesus, seriously impressive, and then to go away to Budapest.
"I was on the couch. I'd just got home, put the kids down, flicked on the telly and then it was the rollercoaster of emotions.
"You go down, then you get the peno, then you go down again and then all of a sudden he puts another one in off a fantastic assist and then that last goal…"
"That's awesome, isn't it. Yeah, Troy Parrott, man.
"Jesus, I was getting emotional when he was speaking after the game.
"How good. I can't wait for the qualifier. We'll definitely be behind them."
Like his head coach, Lowe is a Manchester City fan because when he was settling in he realised "everyone [else] supports [Man] United and Liverpool, so it's City.
"Faz [Andy Farrell] said the first time he ever saw me, we were in a grocer, and he saw some long-haired person, obviously it was me.
"I was wearing an old-school City long-sleeve jumper.
"And he was trying to figure out who it was and then he saw it was me.
"He didn't even say hello to me then, just kept on going on with his day but yeah, we're City through and through."
Lowe, who will win his 43rd cap against South Africa today, spoke last spring about the new escorting laws and how it has affected catching technique.
Farrell invited in former Dublin midfielder Brian Fenton to share some tips during the Six Nations and after a year of the new rules in force, Lowe was asked to reflect on life at the coal face.
"With the way the game is being reffed now, it's completely different," says Lowe, who kicked for 259 of the team’s 1,158 metres last weekend.
"The high ball – well, the contestable in the air – is completely different to what it was the last time we played against South Africa, over there in Durban.
"And it's incredibly tougher now. Every contestable kick, there's a collision in the air that you've got to worry about.
"There's trying to not knock it on, trying to win it clean.
"Look, it's the way the game's gone."
So what’s the adjustment for a winger like Lowe.
"A lot of it's timing," he continues.
"And now, with the collision in the air, we're actually going up more hand over head trying to catch it, like the AFL [Aussie Rules] boys do.
"The NRL [rugby league] boys are very good at it as well.
"You don't want to be a sitting duck. You don't want to be standing under it knowing you've got a Canan Moodie or a Cheslin Kolbe or someone leaping on top of you.
"So, being able to get the timing of going back to then generate momentum and go forward.
"But a lot of it's the collision in the air.
"They've got some pretty impressive athletes on their side, so hopefully we can come out the right end of that.
"95% of the time there's going to be a collision in the air, so timing of the jump is massive, trying to get knees higher than theirs, arms higher than theirs.
"Offensively, if I'm not going to get in and be able to get two hands, I'm going up with one hand trying to tap it back and so is every other winger in the world.
"It's tough. It's probably taken that skill set further and further and a lot of it's actually not just the battle in the air, it's a battle on the ground as well - how many people can you get around it?
"'Fingers pointing at the ground’ is one (phrase) that we picked up from the AFL boys.
"And making sure you're low and ready to dive on scraps. I think even [Tadhg] Furlong got one of the scraps on the ground."
As for whether or not the game is better for the new laws, Lowe volleys the question back to the reporter.
"Do you think it's good?
"I thought when it was first brought in that you couldn't cradle that it would create more bad collisions in the air but it hasn't.
"So yeah, I think it's here to stay for the near future anyway.
"Leaning towards South Africa, they've always been very, very competitive in the air and leading towards this Saturday I think it's going to be a tough day but hopefully we come out on the right side of it."
For all that, both Lowe and Hansen dropped dollies last weekend, and perhaps because he had to stand in for Hansen, the New Zealand native couldn’t help but have the last laugh.
"It was wet, windy, sideways.
"It wasn't as easy as it looked out there.
"I was up in one of the Aviva suites after and someone was slagging me there.
"I was like, ‘you're in the air con sitting here, in 24 degrees. You come out there, I'll kick some balls and see how many you catch’.
"It was tough conditions, unfortunately. That's just what happens.
"Yeah, it sucked. Mack did it as well, so...what an idiot he is, huh."
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