Final haka for the Towering Inferno
HIS career started with a stampede, not that Jonah Lomu, who died of a heart attack yesterday, ever had to run with the herd.
He was a one-man destructive force that in 1995 took rugby by the scruff of the neck and shook it so violently it helped unshackle it from its amateur roots.
You could argue the blockbusting All Blacks wing was one of a kind – at worst the first of his kind.
He was to rugby what Babe Ruth was to baseball, what Big Bertha was to golf, the turbocharged engine to Formula1.
He was, however, a long time sufferer of nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder which showed its initial symptoms during the 1995 Rugby World Cup (RWC).
It was a tournament to which Lomu was inextricably linked. He attended this year’s spectacle where he did extensive promotional work before heading to Dubai for a holiday. The 40-year-old, however, died shortly after he returned to his beloved Auckland.
Lomu underwent a kidney transplant in 2004 but his deteriorating condition demanded more action.
“I plan to have another operation,” Lomu told this journalist in his hotel room in February.
“I need to get a few issues ironed out. Every time you undergo a transplant it gets more difficult because your genetic make-up has changed.”
He never got to have that operation. His health was in decline but he kept his chin up.
Lomu’s last trip here was like a pilgrimage. It marked 20 years since RWC 1995 which formed part of his documentary series, The Book of Jonah L.
During that time he met up with his old adversary, Springbok wing James Small, who tweeted yesterday: “A privilege to be held in the same breath. RIP big man.”
Erstwhile Bok flyhalf Joel Stransky also spent time with Lomu on that visit. “It was a couple of hours that passed really quickly,” Stransky recalled. “He looked okay but there were signs that he was undergoing dialysis.”
Lomu, in fact, was on a strict itinerary and had to return home for treatment.
Stransky fondly remembers their last encounter. “He has always been a softly spoken, humble guy off the field. He was deep and had great respect for South Africa, our culture and our change into a democracy. He was a huge fan of Nelson Mandela. He had a huge understanding of what transpired in that period of change.
“You almost got the sense from him that he was okay with them losing the 1995 final, that he didn’t mind losing because of the bigger picture.”
Despite the All Blacks falling short in that tournament, Lomu’s star could rise no higher.
“What put it into perspective was that the great Jonah could not score a try against us. That was the amount of respect we had for his ability,” said Stransky.
Away from the field Stransky noted Lomu’s humility and warmth. “Warmth was portrayed outwards to people not that close to him.
I’m really lucky. I’ve already lived more in one lifetime than many would in six or seven lifetimes – Jonah Lomu (1975-2015)
Imagine how he was to those close to him?”
Lomu in February spoke with reverence about his sons. “I want to be the best dad I can for my two boys. The best example for them. To be there not as the rugby player Jonah Lomu but as their dad.”
A World Cup winners’ medal may have eluded Jonah Lomu but the world will undoubtedly remember him as a champion human being.