James Lowe has been earning plaudits off the pitch for his easygoing approach as much for his considerable talents on it.
Richie McCormack was joined by Declan Lynch and Cliona Foley on the Sunday Paper Review to discuss a number of pressing issues that are taking up the papers, including a sit-down interview with Leinster star James Lowe.
Lowe is one of three top-quality non-EU players that Leo Cullen has at his disposal, but no other individual brings quite the same entertainment value as the New Zealander.
The OTB panel highlighted Peter O’Reilly’s piece in The Sunday Times as well as Brendan Fanning’s version in The Sunday Independent after the pair spent time in the 25-year-old’s company.
“The minute you see him play rugby – you know he’s a hell of a character,” Foley told Off The Ball.
“And there’s been lots of discussion about how did he not learn the defensive system and why is his defence so weak?
“He’s absolutely brilliant in these [pieces] because he absolutely embraces that and tries to explain his difficulties with learning – he’s a fascinating character.
“Interesting enough he got rheumatoid arthritis when he was 14 or 15, which was really interesting, and he recovered from it.
“He explains himself, he thought he had ADHD – and he plays rugby like that sometimes as well. He had a teacher who used to take him out of the room and let him play for an hour or a half-an-hour, and he says she’s still his favourite teacher and they still get on well.
“He talks about how he struggles to learn from listening and he says back in New Zealand they learned with boards. So when he went to Leinster he had to explain ‘I don’t get concepts when I’m listening, sometimes I need you to work it out on a board’.
“He’s completely the anti-PR; he’s very honest, he’s very open.”
Listen to the full Sunday Paper Review podcast below:
Written by James Hopper
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