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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Michael Scully

Leo Cullen praises 'special talent' James Lowe after star turn in Leinster's cruise past Connacht

LEO Cullen hailed the performance of James Lowe as the Kiwi-born Ireland winger put Connacht to the sword at the Aviva Stadium.

The Blues boss watched Lowe score four tries as Leinster helped themselves to eight overall in a 56-20 victory, a result that racked up an aggregate triumph of 82-41 after only five points separated the sides at the end of the first leg in Galway seven days ago.

“He put in a good week this week," said Cullen of Lowe.

"There's always bits of everyone's game to improve upon. He's very, very talented, as we know.

“When he really applies himself, he's as good as anyone out there. He worked hard this week and you can see the rewards that he got off the back of that.

“He brings a different level in terms of the power that he has in contact. It's a skill that he's able to manage contact on his terms.

“When we signed James, we saw that back in New Zealand with the Chiefs.

"He's here a long time now. He's a colourful character, as we know. It was great to see him go well over the last couple of weeks.”

Leo Cullen and Connacht head coach Andy Friend before the game (©INPHO/James Crombie)

Cullen added: “Our job is to get the best out of the players and maximise their potential.

"He has bucket loads of potential. It's about making sure we are working with him to get the best out of him.

"We recognise the special talents that he has.

“There is good positive pressure in the environment because there is good competition for places.

"The lads know they need to play well because if they don't someone else is ready to step into their place in the team."

Connacht boss Andy Friend had no complaints about the result.

"They definitely were dominant," said Friend of Leinster.

"I thought we had an opening exchange there that was in the process of giving us confidence, pretty much the first time though they touched the footy they ran 75 metres and scored and all of a sudden all of that dominance we exerted was just released and they seemed to just go from strength to strength from there.

"But the message is pretty simple, the game of footy is about point of attack and strength of tackle, winning your physical battles, and if you don't do that you won't win the game of football.

"It's hard to see the positives out of that at this point in time, but it's a pretty accurate reflection of the way our season has gone.

"We had games of really great positivity and great performances and games like today when it just seems to fall away, and that's something that we definitely need to address."

Connacht have three regular season URC games remaining and are not expected to make the play-offs.

"We have three games left, it's really important that we don't finish with that performance in mind," Friend commented.

"We need to finish on a high and I think it's important now we get across to South Africa and try and do that."

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