'Everyone understands the history of what Croke Park represents to the Irish people'
JAMES LOWE RECALLS Leinster’s 2018 Champions Cup final win fondly, even if he’d liked to have been more centrally involved.
The winger missed out on selection for the Bilbao final against Racing 92, with restrictions on selecting non-European players resulting in Lowe not making the matchday 23 as Scott Fardy and Jamison Gibson-Park laced up their boots.
Instead, he got to soak up the sights and sounds of the city before taking his seat to watch Leinster overcome the Parisians by three points and claim their fourth Champions Cup title.
“We were in a bakery at nine o’clock in the morning, and we weren’t having croissants,” says Lowe. “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, a famous one of them going for the charge-down on the drop goal attempt right at the end. That sticks in my memory like there’s no tomorrow. Hopefully one day there will be memories of an effort by us in a final that leads to us winning it.”
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Lowe left didn’t get on the pitch when Leinster won the 2018 final.
Lowe’s subsequent memories of finals rugby carry a more bitter taste. He was a mainstay in the team by the time Leinster lost the 2019 decider to Saracens, and also lined out in the 2022 and 2023 defeats to La Rochelle, not to mention the couple of knockout game losses that came between.
Six years down the line from that big day out in Bilbao, the 31-year-old admits it’s hard to imagine Leinster haven’t scaled the mountain since.
“Probably took it for granted, 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’ll do. We’ll keep knocking on the door and one day it will open.”
Lowe was speaking shortly after coming in from yesterday’s Captain’s Run ahead of this evening’s Champions Cup semi-final meeting with Northampton Saints [KO 5.30pm, RTÉ/TNT Sports], with the squad using some of their time on the Croke Park pitch to have some fun with a couple of footballs.
“I think everyone understands the history of what Croke Park represents to the Irish people and I’m sure there’s kids all around the country who dream of one day being able to represent their provinces here and their counties. So look, I’m well aware of what happened here.
Coming here, it’s magnificent, when you stand in the middle of that pitch and look around, the sheer scale and size of it can be quite overwhelming.
“We’ve been here before, we’ve been in some pretty big arenas away from here, it’s just that this one is on our back yard and we get the opportunity to put in a performance and hopefully they invite us back if we do a good job.
“It’s an enormous occasion. It is the first time I’ve been on this road, first time I’ve been on the pitch and it’s for the Captain’s Run. It is an amazing stadium, something that little boys and girls dream about, being able to play here, the fact that we get to play a game of rugby, a game of club rugby and there and the opportunity to fill it out is amazing. Let’s hope we can do it justice.”
Northampton are without the services of captain Lewis Ludlam and winger Ollie Sleightholme, but still have the quality to stress their hosts.
Lowe speaking to the media in Croke Park yesterday.
“If you look at their set-piece, there is a lot of balls of the top, there is a lot of trick plays, where the hookers coming around to play the ball to try and get into space, they attack edge to edge, they are making half-breaks, line-breaks the whole time.
“So we need to be across absolutely everything, they are physical in contact as well, so we know not to miss tackles, I mean fingers crossed I don’t have to make too many tackles because that will be a good day at the office.
“But the likelihood is that’s not going to happen and we are going to have to put our head in a dark place, but it is a credit to them and how they attack and play the game and I think they said earlier they do want to play rugby when they come here, it is teed up for a good spectacle.”
Truth is, Leinster won’t care one jot about the spectacle as long as they get the job done.