How it came to be that I boogied with Lomu on his wedding day

WE WERE running late and I wasn’t happy. It was my friend’s wedding and I desperately wanted to be there when she walked down the aisle. You see, this was no ordinary, every day wedding – this was something so much bigger than that.

This was the day my friend Tanya was getting hitched to the biggest, meanest man in rugby

– the man-mountain who was considered a giant of the game. His name: Jonah Lomu.

With excitement in the air, my best bud and I, along with our partners, raced to Kimberley from Bloemfontein on the morning of November 9, 1996.

But as we got closer and closer to the local Anglican Church in the middle of town, we realised something wasn’t right. There wasn’t a soul in sight. There were no cars, no police, no security, nothing ...

Had we somehow been tricked? Did we have the date wrong? What were we missing?

A quick phone call to a Kimberley local solved the mystery. We were at the wrong church; there was another Anglican Church in town, and that’s where everything was going down. Time was ticking.

Everyone was already inside the church. We pushed the big door to enter and, you guessed it, there was one almighty big creak. We froze and those sitting and standing at the back turned to see four sweaty 20-year-olds.

We were at the wedding of the decade, and the biggest event Kimberley had hosted in years.

The bride and groom said and did what was asked of them; it was magical, it was beautiful, it was something I’ll never forget.

Later, we partied and danced with Jonah and his friends. We had a jolly good time. It was insane. I loved every minute of it.

So, how you ask, did I end up at the social event of 1996 and the wedding of the year?

Well, Tanya and I became friends in 1994 while studying at the University of the Free State. While our courses were different we took several subjects together and it wasn’t long before we were a big group of friends who did a lot of partying, socialising, and a little studying, together.

Fast forward to 1995 and the Rugby World Cup and a week spent in Bloemfontein by the hot favourites, the All Blacks, at the beginning of June and it was during this week that Tanya and Jonah met, I found out later.

One night a few days after the New Zealand team had left Bloemfontein we were having drinks and I noticed Tanya was wearing an All Blacks puffer jacket. It was the real thing and it was way too big for her. I was immediately curious and interested.

There was an air of mystery to her that night; as if she wasn’t there. Her mind (and heart) was somewhere far away from Bloemfontein. No amount of begging about the official owner of the jacket was forthcoming . She didn’t say a word. She just smiled.

I didn’t see Tanya again during the World Cup but before the Springboks had beaten Lomu and his All Blacks team in the final at Ellis Park a few weeks later, I’d found out from one of her girl friends whose jacket she’d taken ownership of.

It didn’t take long for the news of a romance between Lomu and Rutter to hit the papers.

If I remember correctly Tanya dropped out of varsity and went to New Zealand to be with Jonah. And one day just over a year later, around September of 1996, I was handed a big white envelope with my name on it by a mutual friend. Inside was the invitation to a wedding, at the St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Barkley Road, Kimberley for Saturday, November the 9th.

And that’s how I ended up boogying with Jonah Lomu at his wedding to my friend, Tanya.