The Scotsman's Iain Morrison talks to Scottish Rugby's new performance director Graham Lowe.
"He's been kept hidden away from view for so long that you can't help wondering if Graham Lowe, the SRU's new director of performance rugby, might walk into the Murrayfield interview room with two heads sticking out of his shoulders. Thankfully not. In fact he looks a perfectly ordinary guy although he may just have the most important job in Scottish rugby.
"Born in Auckland, Lowe started his professional career as a strength and conditioning coach with the Otago age-group sides in Dunedin and so it is little surprise that he and his family have quickly settled in Edinburgh, the city that supplied Dunedin with its name and much else besides. "The nature and culture is quite similar between Scotland and New Zealand," he says. "We love Edinburgh, there is an easy connection with the Scottish people."
"He might not thank you for repeating it but Lowe is best known for his close association with the abject failure of the All Blacks at the last World Cup. He was the man behind the team's conditioning experiment, the withdrawal of 22 key players from the early months of the Super 14, a policy that took most of the flak after New Zealand suffered their worst showing, exiting at the quarter-final stage. Since Graham Henry et al refused to budge, Lowe was the most senior member to leave the All Blacks management group and fingers have been pointing his way ever since, so he wastes no time in clarifying a few points."
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