Sensational Jonah, the game's first global star

IT’S A quiet corner of a five star hotel in Johannesburg four days before New Zealand open their 1995 World Cup account against Ireland at Ellis Park. A giant man-boy with comically oversized headphones enveloping his ears is sitting alone on a settee, bored as only teenagers can be bored, and counting down the minutes before All Blacks press officer Ric Salizzo tips him the wink and he can buzz off back to his room.

- BRENDAN GALLAGHER

It’s a very young Jonah Lomu enjoying the last few days of anonymity that life was to ever offer him, the last time he was ever a sideshow. I wandered over with my notebook and pen and there was a vague stirring of recognition from the big man. I had interviewed Jonah during both the 1994 and 1995 Hong Kong Sevens when it was quite obvious to anybody paying attention – and, let’s be honest, the majority weren’t – that a very special player was moving amongst us. Yet here he was, alone and unnoticed, at the four-yearly gathering of rugby’s great and good.

Life had already thrown up a few challenges for Jonah. He had bombed, along with the All Blacks generally, when making his senior debut against France in 1994 and was ruthlessly cut from the squad after their humiliating 2-0 home series defeat. He was the youngest ever All Black but that appeared to offer no mitigation or reprieve. And he was only here in South Africa after a late reintroduction to the training squad following a run of injuries to others. Believe it or not, on the eve of the tournament Jonah Lomu, was just another promising young Kiwi. There have been scores of such prospects over the years.

The memory, however, of him dismissing defenders from his presence in Hong Kong, either with raw strength or a blazing outside arc of unexpected pace and beauty was still seared in my mind. And the words of his great friend and New Zealand Sevens captain Eric Rush at that first Hong Kong tournament were still ringing my ears. “Jonah is bigger, faster, stronger and better than Inga. Or he will be.” Rush has been around the block and was not given to hyperbole.