{"id":641597,"date":"2026-06-16T12:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641597\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T12:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:40:13","slug":"james-lowe-exit-row-sparks-cry-baby-accusations-from-ireland-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641597\/","title":{"rendered":"James Lowe exit row sparks ‘cry baby’ accusations from Ireland legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Irish rugby storm has erupted after James Lowe decided to leave and give up his World Cup hopes\"Ireland's<\/p>\n

Ireland’s James Lowe is leaving(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Former Ireland international Donncha O’Callaghan has waded into the Irish rugby row following James Lowe’s exit, labelling those who say the IRFU’s decision to offer him a reduced deal is an attempt to weaken Leinster as “cry baby stuff”<\/p>\n

Lowe’s decision to depart Leinster for Japan\u2019s Suntory club<\/a> has sparked anger in Ireland. The move, which stems from the IRFU\u2019s 2026\/27 budget realignment \u2014 a shift that places more wage responsibility on individual provinces \u2014 means Lowe will no longer be eligible for Andy Farrell\u2019s national squad ahead of the 2027 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Irish bosses wanted Leinster to shoulder more of the burden for Lowe’s wages but the province refused to make up the shortfall and an upset Lowe decided to walk away after being unhappy with the deal offered.<\/p>\n

In the wake of this development, former Leinster player James Tracy voiced his frustration, suggesting that the IRFU’s new financial model effectively handicaps Leinster to allow other provinces to bridge the competitive gap.<\/p>\n

However, former Ireland star Donncha O\u2019Callaghan fired back on a recent rugby podcast, dismissing Tracy\u2019s perspective as “cry-baby stuff.”<\/p>\n

O’Callaghan rejected the notion that Leinster are being unfairly targeted, pointing to the club’s robust resources and elite school<\/a> development pipelines. He argued that despite these structural advantages, the province has underperformed in terms of silverware relative to their assets.<\/p>\n

The issue was discussed by O’Callaghan and Tommy Bowe on the Off The Ball podcast, with Bowe saying: \u201cThere has been a bit of a backlash from Leinster in this in terms of they feel they are being badly treated because they are having to let go of players, and I know James Tracy has come out and said by default we are weakening Leinster in an attempt to make the other provinces catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan hit back, saying: \u201cI would disagree with that; I don\u2019t think that is accurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe [Irish Rugby] have put the resources into them and, unfortunately, it hasn\u2019t given the rewards we would have all wanted. Like Leinster, with the amount of central contracted players, with the amount of assets they have, they have to have won more than they have, and we are seeing it in terms of Team Ireland, it\u2019s a better model if the other provinces are strengthened. Leinster were strengthened to an unbelievable level and haven\u2019t got across the line at all (and won enough trophies).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the money, they have the economics, they have the Dublin market and if you look at the spend of that area\u2026 it\u2019s blindsided, it just actually shows the way the likes of James Tracy and them think. It\u2019s cry-baby stuff, it genuinely is, that he can\u2019t see beyond to the other provinces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we are tough on Leinster, but that is because they should be held to account, and they are not held to account to the same standards as maybe the rest of them. When you have voices like that aired in the media, who always fan the flames for them, it would be better if he was more critical of the structures in place.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irish rugby storm has erupted after James Lowe decided to leave and give up his World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[27009,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-641597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-ireland-rugby-team","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}