The stuff of nightmares and dreams

VERY few had heard of Jonah Lomu before he arrived in South Africa for the 1995 World Cup. The All Blacks had been careful to keep him under wraps. He had done no media interaction.

James Small remembered having seen him play at the Dubai 7s tournament before the World Cup. He did not know who he was then, as he told South African-born writer Donald McRae in Winter Colours: “He was huge. I thought, ‘Who’s this brute of a lock’. And then I heard he was a wing. I thought, ‘Oh, s***!’.”

It did not take the rest of the world long to discover who Jonah Lomu was.

He was a 20-year old, 120kg, 1.96m, turbo-charged steamroller, a “freight train in ballet shoes”, wrote former Wallaby forward Peter FitzSimons.

It did not take long for the rest of the rugby world to say, “Oh, s***!”

He was terrifying and magnificent. You could not take your eyes off him when he played. It was like watching a truck rush at a rabbit. There would be only one winner. Wings in rugby were supposed to fly like fighter jets. Lomu was a jumbo jet with Concorde speed.

Lomu changed rugby forever. He made a very good All Black team great. He defined the 1995 World Cup.

The picture of Madiba and Pienaar may be the enduring still image, but still images did little justice to Lomu. He was the star of highlights reels. Against Ireland he was unstoppable.

“The Irish threw everything at him, including their entire forward pack. He bumped, he weaved, he shimmied, he shook, he outpaced, he slowed down and then accelerated once more, as the crowd leapt to its feet,” wrote FitzSimons yesterday.

“By the time he put the ball down at the other end of the field, I counted seven still prone Irish players dotted around the field, marking his course!”

As much as South Africa worried and fussed, and cheered and cried and laughed as the Springboks fought their way to the final, Lomu was the one they kept speaking about, the one who could turn the match.

There is a story, possibly an urban legend, but it is so good you want it to be true, about a fax sent to the team before the final by an eight-year old fan who lived near Christchurch.

“Dear All Blacks. Remember, rugby is a team game. All 14 of you, pass the ball to Jonah.”

How would the Boks stop him? It was down to James Small, who would be marking him.

And then Madiba gave a helping hand, stopping by the All Blacks’ change room and, according to his bodyguard Linga Moonsamy: “You could also see immediately that he was timid. Sort of daunted by Mandela.

“The New Zealand guys all had their shirts off, and when Mandela stood next to Lomu, I heard Mandela say ‘Wow!’”

Lomu was the “wow” player. He blazed a trail, changed the face of the sport forever.

Others have followed in his path, but there can only be one Jonah Lomu – he was the first. He was the stuff of nightmares and dreams. He was the first rugby superstar.

He was the player we all wanted to have on our team.