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

I don't know precise figures.

It's in the region, I think, of somewhere around about 100,000.

So the difference between that and what Leinster would have to add to that would be quite sizable.

When you're looking at this, you're also looking at the number of games that he's played.

So when James Lowe wasn't Irish qualified in the first three seasons, I think I had it in the piece, he's played 47 matches for Leinster in those three seasons, and he's played 55 in the last six.

Now, there's injuries factored in there, particularly this season when he was injured, but also the fact that he played a lot of games for Ireland.

So it's not as if he was kind of resting with his feet up, but it just meant that Leinster had him for an average of just over nine games a season for the last six seasons.

And that probably, when you come to the actuary who was looking at a bean counter or whatever way you want to describe those that look at a balance sheet in Leinster, they would have looked at the number of games they would have had access to him and then they would have looked at his salary figures and they would have cross-referenced those two things and made a judgment on whether he was...

how much he would cost, if you like, to retain him with Leinster.

And they made their decision and the contract that they offered him, because they said they offered him a contract, so the contract that they offered him wasn't something that a player at 33 years of age as well, you've got to remember that nobody would begrudge James Lowe his right to earning as much as he possibly can at this stage in his career.

So,

The attraction of going elsewhere, in Japan in particular, is where they come to you with wheelbarrows full of cash, is that you earn significant money out there for a less robust, we'll say physically demanding match environment.

So there are attractions.

He said he didn't want to go.

I wouldn't blame him for not backing down in terms of his negotiations.

I would support his right to try and get the best contract he can.

That would be my view of it.

And he's just, obviously the figures were too, there was too much of a discrepancy in what he was looking for and what Leinster, if you like, were willing to pay.

No, yeah.

No expense spared on the old torturing Acacia.

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