John O'Sullivan

speaker

1,312 appearances 8 recordings 2 series first heard Mar 2026 last heard 11 Sep

John O'Sullivan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 3.

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The Counter Ruck: The Irish Times Rugby Podcast · Why is James Lowe leaving Leinster? · 12 Jun 2026 podcast

So you're not replacing him

There's nobody there to replace them as such.

You can change how you play, or you can change for a different type of player.

And there's a bit of a gap between him and some of the younger players in the academy and fringe players.

That's not to kind of run down the qualities.

Like Tommy O'Brien has been Leinster's player of the year, and nobody would question his qualities.

But he's just a different style of player.

And I don't think there has been a sizable decrease in the influence that Lowe brings to bear when he plays matches.

So...

At 33 years of age, I thought he still had a role to play for Leinster.

And I think he still adds a point of difference in the way that he plays the game.

And Leinster don't have a player like him in the squad.

So I would have thought that an extra year would have been reasonable.

And when I say an extra year to keep him going through the World Cup and

come up with some sort of deal for that.

The problem for Leinster was twofold.

One is obviously they've got to come up with the money.

The IRFU have what they call a pony, where they add money in a pony contract or if you like extension to a contract where it's a player of national interest and they subsidize the contract to the player.

My understanding is they declined to do it for James Lowe when he was looking for a new deal.

And it's in the region.

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