Vidiri’s death a doubly sad day
Former All Blacks winger and Blues great Joeli Vidiri has died, just hours after another famous winger Va’aiga Tuigamala.
The former All Black and Fijian international was 48.
‘‘With heavy hearts we announce the passing of Joeli Vidiri, aged 48,’’ the Blues posted to social media.
A lethal combination of speed, power, size and strength, Vidiri often made opposition wingers look like boys trying to tackle men in the early days of the Super Rugby competition.
Vidiri, who played two tests for the All Blacks and represented Fiji seven times, endured a 14-year wait for a kidney donor before undergoing transplant surgery in 2016.
Vidiri, who formed one of the most lethal winger
combinations in rugby history with the late Jonah Lomu when the pair turned out together for Counties Manukau and the Blues, played 62 games for the Blues. Lomu and Vidiri, who were close friends, battled similar kidney diseases.
The Fijian-born Vidiri debuted for the All Blacks in 1998 – when he appeared as a replacement for Lomu against England – and collected a Commonwealth Games gold medal with the New Zealand Sevens in Kuala Lumpur later that year.
He was one of the Blues’ originals. A key member of the team who won the inaugural Super Rugby Championship in 1996, Vidiri was there again, scoring brilliant tries in 1997, when the Blues defended their title.
He scored 43 tries for the Blues. Vidiri’s connection with Pukekohe and Counties-Manukau rugby was born out of representing Fiji at the Hong Kong Sevens in 1994.
‘‘RIL [rest in love] to a legend of the game,’’ the Chiefs posted to social media.
In 2018, Vidiri returned to Fiji to launch a rugby programme, Sport for Health, aimed at improving the health of young people there.