OTB Rugby
Rugby Daily | Tracy says Lowe axing goes "too far", Doris doubt for URC decider
11 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Off the Ball Rugby.
No, I probably apologised for the first one. I think that's where you have to get rid of that in rugby. You've got to tap the shoulder to the head. But, yeah, because then guys aren't going to jack calls. So, you know, that just... The only thing for me now is to say sorry for that.
Join in the obsession. Subscribe now at offtheball.com forward slash join. Off the Balls Rugby Daily. With Bank of Ireland, a proud sponsor of Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster Rugby. Never stop competing. You're very welcome to Thursday's Rugby Daily. I'm Cameron Hill. Now coming up, James Tracy fumes over the decision by the IRFU to let go of James Lowe.
Caelan Dorris is a doubt for Leinster's URC final against the Bulls next Friday. And Aoife Wafer is crowned the Women's Six Nations Player of the Championship once again. First up today, James Tracy has slammed the decision to allow James Lowe to leave Leinster at the end of the season.
The winger, who's spent nine seasons with the province and earned 45 caps for Ireland, is set to depart these shores this summer, with Japan floated as his most likely destination. It's believed that Ireland head coach Andy Farrell had been keen to retain the New Zealander as part of his 2027 Rugby World Cup plans.
According to former Leinster hooker Tracy, the province had initially tabled a new deal of a 1 plus 1 year contract that was then supposedly withdrawn, replaced by a 1 year version for half the money. He feels Lowe paid the price for the IRFU's attempt to bring Leinster and the other provinces towards a more level playing field.
I think they've pushed it too far in terms of how much they're cutting back on the only team that's competed at the top end of Europe. To be able to compete at that top end, you need to have the likes of James Lowes in your squad and good NIQs.
there's a world and I see it from the point of view of the other provinces that like you know we need a bit of love as well and I get that but I don't see how making the team our best Irish team at the moment worse is you know the best way to move all four provinces forward and like that's how it feels to me whether that's a biased point of view and you know that's just kind of where I sit on it it just feels like they're trying to weaken
Now Tracy also reacted to Leinster's 20 points to 11 win over the Stormers last weekend.
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Chapter 2: What decision did the IRFU make regarding James Lowe?
I think there was, you know, probably like there's not much in scrum, but I would say slightly stronger scrum as well, which is... It's going to be a tricky one.
One thing that I thought was clever in how Leinster went about combating the scrum was if you're going to get a penalty against, you have it for it being a collapse because if you go up and backwards and you're going backwards at a rate of knots, it doesn't look good for the ref and it kind of sets their mind of who the dominant scrum is.
Well, if it's a collapse, sometimes it's 50-50 and they'll give the penalty most of the time to whoever's feet it is. Now, I'm not saying that should be your goal going into the game is collapsing and hoping for the best, but I think you've got to box clever against, I would say, a superior scrum in that bull side.
You can listen back to James Tracy in full right now.
Chapter 3: Why is Caelan Doris a doubt for the URC final?
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Aoife Wafer is celebrating being crowned Women's Six Nations Player of the Championship for the second year in a row. The back-rower beat England captain Meg Jones, France scrum half Pauline Bourdon-Sensu and Italy back-rower Francesca Scorbini to the award. Wafer started all five games in this year's campaign for Ireland as they recorded three wins and finished third in the standings.
She ended the tournament with a personal tally of 78 tackles, the second highest number across the tournament, and her eight dominant tackles was the joint highest across all the players.
Chapter 4: What are James Tracy's thoughts on the IRFU's decision about James Lowe?
Her club Harlequins confirmed last week that Wafer has signed a new deal with the PWR side after a successful debut season at the Stoop. Meanwhile, British and Irish Lions women's head coach Jo Yap hasn't ruled out picking an England-heavy selection for their maiden tour next year.
The first-ever women's team for the representative side will head to New Zealand in September of 2027 for three tests against the Black Ferns. Yap was confirmed last week as the head coach for the inaugural tour. She has already begun her preparations for next autumn, including speaking to Andy Farrell, the head coach of last summer's series win in Australia.
The former Red Roses captain was speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's Rugby Union Weekly this week. She believes her job is to pick the strongest possible squad, which may mean that fewer players from Ireland, Scotland or Wales make the cut.
Ultimately, when it comes to the Lions, it's about picking the best players. And I think that is absolutely key. If you're a Lion, you want to know that you deserve to be a Lion, so picking the best players. But as it stands, looking around all the unions, there are some very good players in all of the unions and I appreciate the dominance of England from that perspective.
But there are players in every squad that you go, wow, they are really talented. And I think naturally, if it continues the way it is and there's a lot of games to be played... and people get that opportunity to believe in themselves and go out and express themselves and continue that over the next 18 months, then they put their hand up, they'll deserve to go.
Joe Schmidt's tenure as Wallaby's head coach is set to come to an end next month. Les Kiss will take the reins following their home nation's championship games against Ireland, France and Italy this July. The Queensland Reds head coach held off until the conclusion of their Super Rugby campaign. His first games will be two tests against Japan in August.
But according to reports from Australia, Schmidt is set to stay on within the rugby Australia ecosystem, at least in the short term. So the Sydney Morning Herald report that he's set to join the coaching team of Australia A for their two game tour of the US in October. Former Munster coach Stephen Larkham will lead that coaching team.
Their fixtures are yet to be revealed, but it's expected they will play two games against the USA Eagles. France are set to leave two of their biggest stars at home for the Nations Championship Games in the Southern Hemisphere this summer. So aside from the Wallabies, the Six Nations Champions will also take on New Zealand and Japan next month.
Local outlet Sudwest report that Mathieu Jalibert and Louis-Biel BiarƩ have been left off the preliminary squad list sent by France to their club Bordeaux-Begle. Head coach Fabien Gaultier has implemented a policy in recent seasons where players who've played more than 25 games and over 2,000 minutes a season won't be considered for summer tours.
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Chapter 5: How does the IRFU's decision affect Leinster's competitiveness?
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