Ireland pay price of England win as brutal James Lowe injury update hits

Ireland wing James Lowe will miss the remainder of the Guinness Six Nations with a groin injury sustained during last weekend’s win over England.

The 33-year-old limped off to be replaced by Leinster team-mate Tommy O’Brien in the 18th minute of the 42-21 success at Twickenham.

Ireland host Wales in round four of the championship on Friday, March 6 before Scotland visit Dublin eight days later on the final weekend.

“Unfortunately James Lowe has been ruled out of the remainder of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations with the groin injury he suffered in last week’s win over England at Allianz Stadium,” read a statement from the Irish Rugby Football Union.

New Zealand-born Lowe has scored 17 tries in 45 appearances for Ireland and won two British and Irish Lions Test caps during last summer’s tour of Australia.

He played every minute of Ireland’s triumphant Six Nations campaigns in 2023 and 2024.

Having been left out of head coach Andy Farrell’s matchday squad for the 36-14 round-one defeat by France on February 5, Lowe impressed in the subsequent 20-13 win over Italy.

Ireland sit third in the championship table – behind leaders France and second-placed Scotland – following the record victory away to England.

Upcoming opponents Wales remain winless after three games but came close to upsetting Gregor Townsend’s Scots on Saturday before slipping to a 26-23 loss in Cardiff.

With Ireland chasing the Triple Crown and retaining a slim shot at the title, assistant coach Simon Easterby insisted the squad will not be getting carried away with a memorable trip to south-west London.

“I guess one result against England in Twickenham, it doesn’t give us the right to sit back and reflect and enjoy that, because you know you’ve got another game coming up against Wales who performed really well against Scotland,” Easterby said following Thursday’s open training session at the Aviva Stadium, according to RTE Sport.

“Our philosophy has always been to be really diligent around the fundamentals in our game and make sure that we keep honing those skills and keep mastering those skills in training to allow us to keep performing and we’ll need to get better again next week.

“It’s a different game, it’s a different team that we’re playing against. They (Wales) have got different skill sets and they’ve got different threats to England. We need to make sure we stay on top of that.”