Just over a year ago Michael Lowry was captaining RBAI to their third successive Ulster Schools Cup final win.
Lowry played fly-half and James Hume played centre and both would graduate and enter the Ulster academy where they endured mixed fortunes. Hume would go on to play for Ulster A and eventually the senior team and the Ireland U20’s while Lowry sat on the sidelines nursing a groin injury.
It was tough for the 20-year-old but he eventually recovered and worked his way into the senior setup.
“It’s been weird (training with the seniors), because obviously you were watching them on TV a couple of years ago and you don’t know them,” he told the Belfast Telegraph back in August.
“Now you’re actually talking to them, they’re your mates now, you can go around and chat away with them. It’s pretty weird.”
If talking to his teammates was weird for Lowry it was just as strange watching it from the stands. Looking on at the 1.76m. 76 kilogram full-back converse with the 1.91m, 96 kilogram Jacob Stockdale and the 1.93m, 108 kilogram Stuart McCloskey you could be forgiven for thinking that Lowry had wandered his way in from a P.E. class and straight into the Champions Cup.
But then he caught the ball and took off.
Filling the shoes of Charles Piutau this season was always going to be an unenviable job for whoever stepped in at full-back this season but with Louis Ludik, Luke Marshall, Darren Cave and Henry Speight all out injured, Will Addison moved to outside centre and Lowry moved to the back.
It was a big question heading into the game given that Lowry spent most of his school days at fly-half but he quickly showed why he was so well regarded coming out of Inst with a searing break through the middle of the Leicester defence that very nearly led to Ulster’s opening try of the game.
Second-row Alan O’Connor would claim that honour four minutes after the break but the first-half belonged to Lowry who already looks like a better prospect than incumbent Peter Nelson.
It is only one game, and Ludik will still return, but Lowry is already showing strong signs that he can play at this level.
He’s deceptively quick, he has great agility, he holds the ball in two hands and he looks to attack and link up with the support players around him. He was steady under the high ball, a facet that was very much appreciated by captain Rory Best and winger Jacob Stockdale, who both went out of their way to congratulate him after a contested take in the first-half, and he’s calm under pressure.
With Leicester breaking down the wing after centre Kyle Eastmond spotted space at the back, Lowry beat his opposite number Jonah Holmes to the ball before falling on top of possession and finding his way back to his feet, fighting for possession and waiting for the support of his teammates. It’s not necessarily a trait that jumps out at you but it’s a great sign of composure at such an early phase of his career.
“The frightening thing with Michael is that my [son] Ben is closer in age to him than he is to me,” said Best.
“I think it shows the caliber. We know how talented he is but to stand up from the first ball, and you knew they were going to come after him there, and to win a class penalty on a 50-50 ball that he just said that that was going to be his. That’s the attitude we want from these young guys. We don’t expect them to be perfect but we expect them to show that attitude and he showed that in spades.”
With Ludik out, and with a host of centres currently missing through injury, there could be more minutes for Lowry at the back and on the basis of his performance against Leicester and he will certainly have earned them.
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland said that he would need to see more from Lowry before making a decision on whether he’s best used as a full-back or closer to the ruck as a fly-half but that his abilities with ball in hand can open Ulster’s attack up.
“It’s his ability to play ball,” said McFarland.
“He’s got speed, he’s got agility, he knows when to give a pass and he’s a good decision maker and he’s really brave. I think around his attack stuff gives us something extra there.
“I’d like to see him play more full stop but he’s a really exciting prospect so let’s see how he goes.”
While Lowry is just finding his feet at provincial level, captain Rory Best is trying to ensure his keep moving with another brilliant performance at the centre of the hosts scrum.
Best turned 36 in August and while his match numbers weren’t exactly eye popping (six runs for 22 metres, nine tackles, one clean break) his effort certainly was.
The Ireland skipper charged down kicks, chased loose balls, and indeed his own kicks after a nice grubber into the 22 in the first-half, but he hit one ruck after a John Cooney kick and obliterated those that stood before him.
Leicester were under pressure and Best smashed a ruck that he had ran over 50 metres to get to, forcing a turnover in the process. Second-row Iain Henderson would crash over seconds later, while the try was ultimately chalked off by the TMO after Nick Timoney’s pass to Cooney was ruled forward, but it was sensational work from Best who’s effort remains high despite clearing the rest of the matchday squad by nearly nine years.
Ulster will face Racing next week in Paris and it will be another huge test for McFarland in what has been a very testing start to his head coaching career. However, he had a simple message for his side’s trip to the U Arena where the Champions Cup finalists put 34 points on Munster last year.
“You can’t go to Paris and be shy in the way you play. It’s not possible. You’ve got to go there ambitious, you’ve got to take them on and you’ve got to play your game and see where it takes you.”
Let’s see if he takes Lowry along with him.
