R.I.P.
Sad news that one of rugby’s greats, All Black, Jonah Lomu has died aged only 40 years old.
With such players as Jonah Lomu there’s always going to be people compared to him and described as the new Lomu but there’ll never be a new Jonah Lomu, he was a one off.
Yes in this day more than 20 years since he burst on the scene there are backs that are as big as him, there are backs that are as quick as him, backs that are as good as him, backs that’ll score more than him, quicker than him but they’ll never have the impact on the game that Lomu did as the game turned professional in the mid 90s.
Rugby has grown since his day but back then blokes his size were meant to be second rowers. Blokes his size weren’t meant to run that fast nor have those ball handling skills.
Those that witnessed the World Cup in 1995 know they saw something very special, in that semi-final his sixth international, the way he walked through Mike Catt and the rest of the England team .
All done while suffering from the disease that would eventually lead to his early death and staying, from all accounts, a pretty decent fellow.
Count the French shirts he bounced off…