Jonah Lomu Passes Away

First topic message reminder :

Rugby has lost one of it's great sons. The first true global, professional, rugby superstar. A sad sad day.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/74160034/all-blacks-legend-jonah-lomu-dies--report.html

I'll never forget Keith Quinn's "Jonah, OH OH" commentary as you steamrolled England.

RIP big fella.

All these tributes are fully justified for a great man and a great rugby player.

Jonah - RIP

Such very sad news which is devastating for all rugby fans but must be far worse for his wife left with two young children. I am now even more upset that, although I work in Covent Garden, I was unaware that some of the ABs, including Jonah, were performing the Haka on the Piazza just before the World Cup began. I've watched it several times online but I just so wish I could have seen the big man in person. Such a gentle, humble giant who put lesser prima donna superstar sportsmen to shame. RIP Jonah - free from pain at last.

What a guy. I remember while I was at Uni in Cardiff, I was in a lecture in the indoor athletics centre. Unbeknown to the lecturer, the Cardiff Blues squad came in behind him for some sprint training. Needless to say, nobody had any idea what the lecturer was saying, we were just in awe of this superstar, still with a fair bit of pace, hammering down the track.
What was clear is that he fitted in with every guy in that Blues squad, laughing and smiling. Not looking at all like he thought he was above them. 
The amount of times people who have known him have said 'What a good bloke' in the last two days speaks volumes.

fa0019 wrote:
People say he wouldn't be as destructive today and that is complete BS. He was 19st with a wingspan that was unrivaled yet his acceleration was unmatched. Players were probably quicker 15 years ago then they were today, wingers had less bulk... yet Jonah beat them all. Craig Joiner was a Scottish sprinter, a 10.6 man and couldn't keep up. He took all wingers on the outside and swatted them like flies.

Totally agree, he was a total freak natural athlete - he could beat guys on the outside or run over them, he could step too. He was one of the few genuinely unplayable players in the history of the game at his peak.

There have been many powerful players who've been compared to him since - some of them are/were genuinely better all round players but no one could destroy defenses in the way Lomu could and no one will again.

Cullen, Wilson and Lomu was the greatest back 3 ever in my opinion.

Found this yesterday from his book signing at The Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay, 2004.
I told him at the time how impressed I was when he stayed on the field and shook hands with all the French players in 1999.

He said "Thanks man, that's nice..." (or something short & sweet like that from memory)

All the Best:

rodders wrote:

fa0019 wrote:
People say he wouldn't be as destructive today and that is complete BS. He was 19st with a wingspan that was unrivaled yet his acceleration was unmatched. Players were probably quicker 15 years ago then they were today, wingers had less bulk... yet Jonah beat them all. Craig Joiner was a Scottish sprinter, a 10.6 man and couldn't keep up. He took all wingers on the outside and swatted them like flies.

Totally agree, he was a total freak natural athlete - he could beat guys on the outside or run over them, he could step too. He was one of the few genuinely unplayable players in the history of the game at his peak.

There have been many powerful players who've been compared to him since - some of them are/were genuinely better all round players but no one could destroy defenses in the way Lomu could and no one will again.

Cullen, Wilson and Lomu was the greatest back 3 ever in my opinion.

George North... about 2 st lighter and a lot slower too. Same with Savea. Let the physicists calculate the greater force from that.

That's no disrespect to them, its simply that they aren't even close. John Kirwan was the George North of his day... in fact he is probably a carbon copy size wise.... and John Kirwan regardless how great he was was nothing compared to Lomu.

I'm sure this is an anecdote that many have heard but it still makes me smile - I wonder if Healey saw the funny side?

Woodward in 1995:
The night before that game we had a team meeting and I told the England lads that I wouldn't want a single New Zealander in my team. England were the best and England were going to win. There was a bit of a murmuring and eventually Will Greenwood put his hand up. "Clive we have had a bit of a word and, er, the consensus is that we would definitely swap Austin Healey for Jonah".

Leave it to Will.

I guess it's all already been said in the media and above, I was shocked when I heard it because the man still looked so fit and his eyes still seemed to have so much life.

He was still young enough to be starting a life and yet after such a celebrated early one, he's gone.

He always seemed a little uneasy about the attention he got - he was open to it and warm with it but I did always get the impression of a man more at home on the field than talking about his exploits in the past tense.

I think the comments that struck me most in all the tribute pieces was one quote of his posted about 1995:

"I just didn't want to fail and I also didn't want to let my team-mates down.  I think that's what a lot of people don't realise and people wouldn't understand in that situation"

So his heroics came from a very selfless place of simply not wanting to let down the team or the Nation.