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'I know he's an absolute psychopath, but when he does talk, you do listen'
By Ben Smith
Ireland’s Kiwi winger James Lowe has shared his insight into flyhalf Johnny Sexton and his influence after a historic year where Ireland secured a 2-1 series victory over the All Blacks.
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The former Maori All Black became capped with Ireland after signing with Leinster in 2017 and switching eligibility through the three-year residency rule.
The 30-year-old got his chance to face the All Blacks in November 2021, a feat he said he never dreamed of, and managed to score a try against the side he dreamed of representing in a 29-20 win.
That success continued when Lowe returned to New Zealand this year with Ireland in the July series where the visitors overcame a 1-nil deficit to win the series, something he said wouldn’t have happened without Sexton.
“You’d be naive to think that we aren’t dependent on Jonathan [Sexton],” Lowe told Jim Hamilton on Rugby Roots.
“Even in that first test [against the All Blacks] when he went off for an HIA and didn’t come back, we weren’t the same.
“We weren’t as well oiled, we weren’t as efficient. He adds a sense of direction to a team.”
Ireland started fast in all three tests but a critical period of play just over 20 minutes into the first test saw Ireland give an intercept try and lose Sexton to a head knock after slipping into Sam Cane.
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Sexton returned to the starting side for the second Test and Ireland looked like the better side again, scoring early through prop Andrew Porter inside three minutes.
Lowe labelled Sexton a ‘psychopath’ who pulls the team together while the speed at which the Irish flyhalf reads the game is unrivalled.
“I know he’s an absolute psychopath, but when he does talk, you do listen,” Lowe said.
“He puts you in positions that are going to put you through holes, give you weak shoulders. He’s an easy man to follow round.
“He’s just got so much experience, without him you are not lost, but he just sees things unfold so much quicker. He knows where space is going to be.
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“He knows who we are trying to load up on attack, trying to pick on, things like that.
“He’s very, very experienced and very good at his job.”
When Lowe left the Chiefs after the 2017 Super Rugby season to join Leinster he had to adjust to a new environment in which it became clear that Sexton was the ‘head honcho’, but to the Kiwi wing it wasn’t initially clear why.
“There’s Sexton, 100 Tests for Ireland, Lions tours, all the accolades you could think of,” he said of joining the Leinster setup.
“He’s on a pedestal, which I understand now, rightfully so.
“When I got here, I was like why the f*** is dude like… it was sort of a teething period, trying to peg him down as much as I can, but you never go after the King though do you?”
When asked by Hamilton how do you peg him down, Lowe recalled a time back shortly after he joined the club where he went after Sexton over his goal kicking.
“He actually missed a heap of kicks, it was the year they won the Grand Slam in 2018, I went at him on Twitter asking if anybody knew a kicking coach for a friend,” he said.
“Sexto and I get on like a house on fire now, there’s definitely a reason why he’s been so successful and doing it at 37 years old.
“He’s a full-time professional and treated like a King in there and rightly so.”
