“Lomu, aged 40, collapsed and died at his Auckland home early on Wednesday morning after returning from Dubai on Tuesday, where he had been holidaying after being at the Rugby World Cup in Britain”. Perhaps he’s also the greatest player never to play American football.
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“He was someone you would love your kids to look up to”, said the former Ireland captain. In The Citizen tomorrow we include a few tributes and stats to say thank you to a legend and gentleman of the game.
But he believes the late New Zealand star’s impact at that tournament changed rugby forever and opened the door for a generation of juggernaut widemen to take the game by storm. Because, realistically, he was the first big superstar. “He was unique at a time when rugby was at a tipping point”.
“On the field he was a game changer, a destructive and supremely talented winger who has given us so many memories that all rugby fans will always cherish”.
Former England coach Clive Woodward provided an amusing anecdote on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, as he reflected on Lomu’s fearsome reputation. A fast runner and, at 6 feet, 5 inches tall, a punishing blocker, his career ended in 2007 because of nephrotic syndrome, a rare kidney disease.
Morris was even more astounded by Lomu’s near super-human physical prowess given he was encumbered by kidney issues for the vast majority of his career, and wondered exactly what he would of have been capable of with a clean bill of health.
O’Driscoll described the news as a “huge shock”.
He recalled how he woke in the night to tend to his child who was crying, when he saw the news on his phone. “It’s quite possible, had we won that match, I may’ve been on that wing [in the semi]”, Roff said.
“I’m still in shock now realising a great friend has gone”. “By the end of it I’ll have learnt the ins and outs of every clinic in the country”, he joked to the Telegraph at the start of the World Cup, referring to his dialysis.
Lomu scored four tries in the semifinal, leading New Zealand to a 45-29 victory.
He said: “I’d heard a little bit about him before the tournament but like all these things, you wonder if the hype is backed up by the reality – and it was”. If you rolled on two or three years from 1995, wingers like him were common place, when before they really weren’t. Such was Lomu’s brilliance, there was no middle ground.
“I remember coming off the field that day and Sean Fitzpatrick said to me that if it was in any consolation the All Blacks team were in awe of him as well”. “I was only going to be a road bump and someone else was going to have to come in and finish the job after”. He had the ideal balance and that was something I tried to follow.
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He added: “I never met Jonah but he seemed a very humble person”.
