{"id":571011,"date":"2026-07-27T21:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/571011\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:07:11","slug":"lowe-signs-for-japan-club-tokyo-suntory-sungoliath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/571011\/","title":{"rendered":"Lowe signs for Japan club Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Leinster and Ireland winger James Lowe has signed for Japanese franchise Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath.<\/p>\n

Lowe, who won 45 caps for Ireland during his spell in the country, departed Irish rugby<\/a> off the back of a very public and drawnout contract saga with Leinster.<\/p>\n

He amassed 102 caps for the province, playing a starring role in their 2018 EPCR Champions Cup win, as well as this season’s BKT United Rugby Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now he’s headed for pastures new. The New Zealand-born winger will link up with the likes of former All Blacks captain Sam Cane and Toulouse scrum-half Naoto Saito upon arrival at Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath.<\/p>\n

In a statement released on the Japan Rugby League One club’s website in the early hours of Monday morning, Lowe said he was delighted to make the switch.<\/p>\n

“To everyone in the Suntory Sungoliath family, my family and I are incredibly excited to begin this new chapter of our lives in Japan.<\/p>\n

“I have some very special memories from playing there. I have always admired the passion for rugby, the respect shown both on and off the field, and the pride people take in representing their team and I am looking forward to learning more about Japan and its culture.<\/p>\n

“It is a huge honour to join such prestigious club. I will do everything I can to earn the trust of my teammates, coaches and supporters.<\/p>\n

“I want to bring energy, physicality and a positive attacking mindset to the team. I can’t wait to get stuck in and I can’t wait to meet you all!<\/p>\n

“Yatte Minahare.”<\/p>\n

Lowe’s move to Tokyo comes at a time where Leinster have said goodbye to fellow stalwarts Luke McGrath, Ciar\u00e1n Frawley and Will Connors among others. Head coach Leo Cullen will also depart<\/a> at the end of the 2026\/27 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Leinster and Ireland winger James Lowe has signed for Japanese franchise Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath. Lowe, who won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-571011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}