A winger called Jonah
Awinger called Jonah scoring four tries in his team’s big victory. Sound familiar? Some 27 years after Jonah Lomu trampled all over England in that All Blacks’ World Cup semifinal win in Cape Town, one Jonah Lowe matched his namesake’s quadruple feats, in the Chiefs’ Super Rugby Pacific victory over the Waratahs in Melbourne a fortnight ago.
Stuff had suspicions Lowe, who turns 26 on Monday, could well have inherited his first name from the late, great Lomu, who instantly rose to mega stardom at that 1995 tournament. And on inquiry this week the Hastings-born product did not disappoint.
‘‘Yeah, Jonah Lomu was in his prime in 1995-96, I was born in 96 . . . so that’s where my name came from,’’ Lowe said.
‘‘I’ve got four older brothers. Jonah was the man back then. They loved him, obviously, so they were trying to get my parents to call me that.
‘‘My dad was probably hassling my mum just as much, he’s a big rugby fan.’’
Lowe quickly started his own rugby journey, aged four, up against kids a year older than him. It was 2000 – the year Lomu scored that memorable matchwinner in the Bledisloe Cup epic in Sydney.
Imagine the shouts of ‘‘Go Jonah’’ on a kids’ rugby sideline.
So just when did Lowe grasp that he was named after this new superstar of the sport?
‘‘Kind of always,’’ he said.
‘‘You heard about him all the time, so pretty much for as long as I remember, I knew who he was.
‘‘I can’t really remember actually seeing him play. But you see a lot of videos growing up on YouTube and stuff.’’
It wasn’t on the wing where Lowe initially made his name, though. He shone as a centre, and in moving to Auckland’s King’s College for his last two years of secondary school, he, remarkably, linked in the midfield with another boy called Jonah.
‘‘He was a real good player as well.’’ Then, it was just a few months after Lomu’s death in 2015 that Lowe was making his NPC debut for his native Hawke’s Bay.
And was there a stack of expectation carrying such an iconic rugby name, particularly after making the move to the wing with the Magpies being stacked in the midfield department?
‘‘No, not really, eh,’’ Lowe said. ‘‘More just being my brothers’ younger brother. Everyone knew who Karl [the former Hawke’s Bay, Hurricanes, Junior All Blacks and Mā ori All Blacks flanker] was when I was coming up.
‘‘So that was probably more pressure than being called Jonah.’’
Lowe’s first shot at Super Rugby came in 2017 with the Hurricanes – who Lomu had ended up playing the majority of his Super Rugby for – but in four years in the capital he notched all of just four games.
‘‘My first two years I was just learning, I was pretty young, only 19-20,’’ he said.
‘‘Then my last two years I fractured my shoulder three times. And then I would come back and get into good shape and I would just do it again.
‘‘But they had a lot of good wingers there as well, so it was hard to crack there.’’
Seeing a better opportunity at the Chiefs, Lowe shifted north and his career has gone to the next level, in an environment he has thrived in.
‘‘I’ve been loving it, eh. It’s a real good culture here, everyone gets along, it’s like a big family.
‘‘I’ve only been here for two years but it
feels like I’ve been here for ages, all the boys and coaches are friendly.’’
Sporting a 1.84m, 92kg frame that was anything but similar to the Jonah that went before (Lomu being a massive 1.96m and 120kg), Lowe proved an underrated, dependable-rather-than-flashy performer last year, notching eight appearances and two tries, which earned him another one-year deal for 2022.
Then, amidst a growing Chiefs’ list of unavailable outside backs, Lowe stood tall for his crowning glory in that 51-27 Super Round win over the Waratahs at AAMI game time.
‘‘The end goal’s always the All Blacks. But I don’t really focus on that, just try and play as well as I can, and if stuff happens it happens.’’