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When Jonah Lomu had his international breakthrough as a 20-year-old at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, it soon became evident that he would put an indelible stamp on the game.
At the time Lomu was relatively unknown, having played only two international test matches a year earlier. But by the end of the tournament his name was on everyone’s lips, as he scored seven tries in five matches, nearly all of them brilliant displays of his combination of speed and raw power.
Lomu died last Wednesday in Auckland, New Zealand, at 40 of nephrotic syndrome, a rare kidney disease he had battled since he first turned pro.
Rugby fans around the world still talk about the four tries he scored in the 1995 World Cup semifinal against England, in particular the first one, about 70 seconds into the match, when he ran around and through most of the England defence and literally ran over the England fullback Mike Catt.
After the game Catt was quoted as saying Lomu was a “freak,” and when he was pressed as to whether he had seen any players who could compare to him, he answered, “I’ve seen plenty like him, but they were forwards” — the big players up front.
Former Australian player Peter FitzSimons, now a sportswriter and broadcaster, described in a Sydney Morning Herald column how he had covered the 1995 World Cup and seen all of New Zealand’s matches: “None of us had ever seen anything like him. In an age when wingers tended to be built like thermometers, here was a bloke built like a rampaging second-rower, who could nevertheless run the 100 metres in about 11 seconds, with a football in his hands!”
FitzSimons recalled his reaction at the time to Lomu’s performance in the England match. “He was a freight train in ballet shoes.”
Bryan Habana, the South African winger who this year equalled Lomu’s record of 15 career tries in World Cup play, has called Lomu a childhood idol and someone he patterned his own game after.
“Other players could go through players, other players could go around players, Lomu could do it all,” Habana told the Australian broadcaster ABC.
Lomu was a huge presence on the field, standing at 6-foot-5 and weighing about 120 kgs. He brought a combination of blazing speed and raw power that had not been seen in a ball carrier in international rugby. In an international test career cut short by health issues that led to his having a kidney transplant in 2004, Lomu still played in 63 games for the All Blacks, and most of his 37 tries were of the highlight-reel variety.
In 2000 and 2001 there was speculation that Lomu might try his luck in America as an NFL running back — as Australian rugby league star Jarryd Hayne is attempting this season with the San Francisco 49ers. Nothing came of the rumours, though Lomu’s runs were reminiscent of the play of NFL greats like Bo Jackson and Jim Brown. It would have been interesting to see how he might have adapted to the gridiron game.
Lomu staged a comeback after the transplant but was never able to quite regain the form that would have allowed him to reach his goal of returning to the All Blacks and playing in the 2007 World Cup.
Still, Lomu’s effect on the modern game can be seen in the number of big, powerful runners who followed him — though none have reached Lomu’s stature — like Mathieu Bastareaud, the French center; Sonny Bill Williams, the New Zealand utility back; and Australian fullback Israel Folau.
If there is one modern player who draws legitimate comparisons to Lomu, though, it is probably a current New Zealand All Black, the 25-year-old wing Julian Savea, who scored eight tries at the 2015 World Cup.
Like Lomu, Savea first came onto the international scene in rugby sevens and plays rugby union exclusively on the wing. While there had been some powerful runners at the two center positions and fullback, putting a big powerful man like Lomu on the wing was virtually unheard-of.
The New Zealand coaches who gave him his opportunity at the test level saw the power and the speed he displayed in the sevens game and calculated that putting him on the wing could prove effective.
It did, and with devastating effect, as Lomu’s seven tries in the 1995 World Cup and eight more in the 1999 Cup demonstrated. So with his own performance this year, Savea follows in Lomu’s footsteps and given his relative youth and excellent fitness, Savea may yet be the one with the potential to eclipse Lomu’s accomplishments.
Other rugby powers have also had some success with big, powerful wingers, like the South African JP Pietersen, and to a slightly lesser degree, his Springbok teammate Habana, who at his peak may have been faster but a bit smaller in stature. But all of the backs who combine speed and power and score a lot of tries inevitably lead commentators to recall Lomu.
The All Black great set the mould for all of those players. He simply changed rugby as perhaps nobody in the game’s history.
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