James Lowe has admitted his try shouldn't have stood against France, but said 'you get the rub of the green sometimes'
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James Lowe has admitted his try shouldn't have stood against France, but said 'you get the rub of the green sometimes'

IRELAND WINGER JAMES LOWE has admitted his debatable try he scored against France in week 2 of the Six Nations should not have counted at the time.  

Ireland conceded the first try to France's Damian Penaud in the Aviva two weeks ago, but it was Ireland and Lowe that responded with their own try moments later.  

Ireland went through the phases in the French 22 and the ball found a free Lowe on the wing.  

The Leinster man had it all to do with the French defender closing in for the tackle. However Lowe was tackled over touch, but he managed to ground the ball in the corner.  

The TMO and ref weren't sure at the time if Lowe's foot did touch the side-line and after several replays, which showed Lowe's foot barely brushed the turf the try stood. 

Lowe speaking at Ireland's training camp this week admitted that his try should not have counted but went onto to say, 'you get the rub of the green sometimes'. 

"Man, well I actually knew as soon as I put it down [it was out]," Lowe said 

"I was thinking, 'Ah damn, this is out, don't worry about the foot'. 

"I thought I put the ball down on the line but obviously, like the curvature [of the ball] ...I saw it from a bird's eye view, and I thought, 'Ah!'. 

"Sure look, at home you get the rub of the green sometimes. Away from home I don't think it was going to be a try so you take it when you can. 

"If I can carry that on into this weekend then awesome, but at the end of the day it's about performance and results and if I get on the scoresheet or not it doesn't bother me, as long as we win." 

Ireland have won two out of two games in this year's Six Nations and are also expected to beat Italy in Rome this weekend. 

Lowe believes that Ireland haven't even hit top gear yet and there's more to come from Andy Farrell's side ahead of the game this Saturday.

“Obviously outcome-wise, we’re very, very happy, two very good wins, but there are things to work on,” Lowe added.  

“I don’t want to say too much of a cliché here, but we weren’t good enough in some aspects of our game and it was nice to be able to reflect on it in a down week and hopefully implement it and be better against Italy. 

“I think the team is playing very, very well at the moment. Everyone has got a proper understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the week and Saturday is when we get to express it. 

“Things are going well; we need to hold onto the momentum. We know performance is the main thing, and we don’t think we’ve put in a complete 80 (-minute performance) yet.” 

Ireland's game against Italy starts at 14.15pm 

That game can be seen live on RTE TWO.