Pages

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

#RIPJonah (1975-2015)

Jonah.

Jonah Lomu.

When I first heard Jonah's name 12 years ago as a migrant to New Zealand, all I could think was a Jewish prophet in a whale's belly who ran away from his mission to Nineveh.

Then, I saw the rugby reels and the highlights of that try in 1995 against England - who will ever forget that try and the iconic moment that Keith Quinn sounded like he just had an orgasm - "Lomu, oh, oh".

Then I saw many more of his wonderful tries from his illustrious but unexpectedly short rugby career from his debut as a teenager in 1994 against France to that last test against England at Twickenham in 2002.

Indeed, I knew Jonah more for his issues with his kidneys in his latter years. In fact, I have seen Jonah in the face, going with his ordinary life at Les Mills on Taranaki Street.

At the time, I thought he was just some big Pacific Island dude who was the size of Jonah Lomu - probably due to his age, I didn't actually put two in two together and realise that it was the man himself who I saw working out on the shoulder machine.

Funnily enough, I saw another All Black, his former teammate, the late Jerry Collins at the gym around the same time although I did recognise Jerry and talked to him.

Jonah Lomu was rugby's first superstar of the new professional age and without him, we wouldn't have the likes of Julian Savea, etc. who probably all grew up playing Jonah Lomu Rugby on their Playstations wanting to be the next big All Black winger.

In my opinion, Jonah Lomu wasn't the best winger of all time in terms of complete package of skills - Julian Savea and Bryan Habana have him there.

But in terms of impact and charisma on the field, he is the greatest of them all and no player will ever match the same way Jonah carried himself on the field.

Jonah Tali Lomu, you will be genuinely missed.

RIP Jonah 1975 - 2015.

No comments:

Post a Comment