Concerns around James Lowe's future at Leinster after Cullen's quotes

Leinster head coach Leo Cul­len has con­firmed Spring­bok heavy­weight RG Sny­man will remain at the province next sea­son, but James Lowe’s future remains uncer­tain. Sny­man, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the sea­son with a ser­i­ous knee injury, has proven a smash hit since he arrived from Mun­ster in 2024. The back-to-back World Cup win­ner was out of con­tract this sum­mer, but Cul­len has con­firmed the giant second row is stay­ing on. Lowe, however, has yet to put pen to paper on a fresh deal. The power­ful wing, who is just one try short of equalling Shane Hor­gan’s all-time record of 69 tries for Lein­ster, is out of con­tract this sum­mer. James Lowe during a Leinster Rugby squad training session at Rosemount in UCD, Dublin. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile Lowe, who will turn 34 in July, has scored 17 tries in 45 appear­ances for Ire­land and fea­tured prom­in­ently in the 2-1 series win for the Lions in Aus­tralia last sum­mer. Earlier this sea­son, Ire­land head coach Andy Far­rell expressed con­fid­ence that Lowe, who has been side­lined with a groin injury since the Six Nations win against Eng­land in Feb­ru­ary, would sign a fresh deal, but his future remains up in the air. ‘It is play­ing out. It is still play­ing out, so yeah, there are still a few loose ends around the place at the moment that need to be tidied up, and that would be one of them,’ said Cul­len, who was speak­ing ahead of side’s URC game against the Lions at the Aviva Stadium. James Lowe celebrating after scoring against Munster at Croke Park in 2024. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile ‘He’s always been on a Lein­ster con­tract… never been on a national con­tract.’ Cul­len, who signed the New Zea­l­and-born back from the Chiefs, reit­er­at­ing his desire to keep Lowe on the books said yes­ter­day. ‘James is great in terms of the char­ac­ter that he has, his abil­ity you’ve seen over the years as well. So, yeah, let’s see how that plays out. But it would be great to have James here next year.’ The Lein­ster head coach also con­firmed the province are unlikely to land another mar­quee All Black next sea­son, given that the 2027 World Cup is loom­ing large. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile Cul­len has con­vinced Jordie Bar­rett and Rieko Ioane to join the province on six­month sab­bat­ical deals in recent sea­sons. ‘We’re always look­ing at how you add to the group, but it has to fit in with the union remit as well,’ he explained. ‘That’s obvi­ously num­ber one and where it fits in with the depth chart and who the national select­ors want to come through. ‘That’s always the land­scape that we deal in. It is what it is. I know fans want… there’s a great excite­ment when you have a mar­quee player. Rieko is a great example this year. Someone who has added in lots of ways to the group. ‘Someone like Jordie last sea­son, as well as all the play­ers who have gone before in the past. That’s a con­stant con­ver­sa­tion, from a union point of view. Jordie Barrett with his URC Championship medal. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile ‘Spe­cific­ally to that All Black mar­quee player, that’s not going to hap­pen next year because that just doesn’t fit for the way this sea­son is laid out. ‘New Zea­l­and play­ers need to be play­ing in that set-up to be con­sidered for a World Cup, so obvi­ously that would keep a lot of tal­ent in the coun­try. ‘If there’s some­body else, we’ll wait and see. We’re always look­ing. As we know, there are pretty tight para­met­ers there as well.

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