Lomu series slammed
Jonah Lomu’s former manager Phil Kingsley Jones has been left unimpressed with the TV miniseries on the rugby legend.
Jonah, a two-part, three-hour story on the famous All Black, aired on channel Three on Sunday and Monday nights.
Kingsley Jones was the man acknowledged as discovering a teenaged Lomu who went on to be arguably the game’s most famous name and a World Cup superstar.
Lomu, who battled kidney problems, died aged 40 in late 2015 after suffering a heart attack.
Kingsley Jones used his Facebook page to air his frustrations. ‘‘Just watched TV movie Jonah. It was all over the place and a lot of truths left out,’’ he said on a page that still includes a photo of he and Lomu together.
‘‘So much wrong and bulls..t. I know, I was there, can’t trust some media.’’
In the movie former All Blacks doctor John Mayhew is portrayed as Lomu’s father figure as the star battles his illness.
Kingsley Jones’ frustrations come as he did an interview with the New Zealand Women’s Weekly where he revealed he was told to stay away from Lomu’s funeral.
‘‘On the day of the funeral, I sat at the Counties Manukau clubrooms and watched it on the telly with tears streaming down my face.’’
for their ancestral countries of Tonga or Samoa.
‘‘These guys are in no-man’s land,’’ Leo said. ‘‘Surely if the qualification period to represent a country is three years, then it can be the same to ‘unqualify’ for a country.’’
According to Steve Tew, the chief executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union, efforts to reform the eligibility law have foundered upon Six Nations opposition, in which he included a sly dig at England’s policy of recruiting New Zealanders through the grandparent rule.
‘‘The Six Nations countries are reasonably against that, which is ironic because they’re not slow to adopt players with [eligible] grandparents themselves,’’ Tew told TVNZ.
‘‘We saw Brad Shields, and Willi Heinz has just been picked in the [England] World Cup squad. You could be cynical and say they’re just trying to protect the sanctity of international rugby and the value of the jersey – which we understand, too.’’
Yet Leo argues that the odds will always be stacked against tier-two nations while the economic model remains in favour of the status quo. ‘‘The eligibility laws are a symptom of a broken system,’’ he said.
Leo has scheduled talks with the chief executives of the home nations to discuss a profitsharing arrangement for future autumn international matches against tier-two opposition.