Credit: joe.ie 

Finally, we’re onto the province that makes up the basis of the Irish team, my home province, the most talented province. Shall I go on?

 There are many players that are worthy to be noted here; Johnny Sexton, our fabulous Wexford beast Tadhg Furlong alongside an oldie but a goodie Brian O’Driscoll but instead we are ONCE AGAIN back on the International stage again for Leinster with our newly capped, national treasure… JAMES LOWE! Literally the most smiley person to ever live.

Born in New Zealand and of Maori descent, Lowe started playing rugby in high school. He played rugby for a local club for 5 years, as well as playing with the All Blacks on an international level for 3 years before moving to Ireland and signing with Leinster in 2017. He gave up playing with the All Blacks to care for his mother who had a serious stroke, which has left her unable to walk.

He recently qualified for the Irish national team after 3 years residency in the country. He is proud of his Maori roots but has openly stated how much he loves playing for the province, saying ‘Shit man, I love this team.’ He recently signed another 3-year contract with the province. He plays as a wing and has scored 33 tries for the province in the space of 4 years!  He is a fan favourite for the club. Its fair to say that we’re incredibly lucky to have our hands on a former All Black, who is unbelievably proud to be Irish! 

The winger got very emotional during his first international match on the 13th of November 2020. He was clearly holding back tears during the anthems and told the media how much he missed his family being there, as they always pushed him to pursue his rugby career in Ireland! Awww! He then went on to score a try in his first international match!

I have gotten the chance to watch him live in 2 different Leinster vs Munster matches in the 2018-2019 Champions Cup and Pro14 respectively. I watched him get unfairly red carded and disqualified for 4 weeks, which infuriated the entire population of Leinster!   A few months after that, we were in the RDS in Dublin watching Leinster vs Munster again and as the squad was doing the warmups and practice kicks...I got walloped by one of the balls he kicked and expected a rugby ball shaped bruise on my body!  It’s my biggest claim to fame! :)

This ends my series on my top 4 favourite players in each province  *cries in rugby*