The back row would have turned 35 yesterday and Ma'a Nonu, Sonny Bill Williams, Liam Messam, Dan Carter and Jerome Kaino all made the journey to pay their respects.

Thousands of mourners including rugby greats Jonah Lomu and Tana Umaga have attended the funeral of former All Black Jerry Collins who was remembered as a “wicked, mischievous young man” who “never forgot where he came from”.

Former All Blacks rugby star Jerry Collins and his wife Alana Madill have died after their car was hit by a bus on a road outside the southern French town of Beziers.

In the words of decorated former New Zealand captain Sean Fitzpatrick, the back row forward was as “tough as old boots” and “epitomised everything an All Black should be”.

Former All Black forward Jerry Collins has died in a car accident in France in the early hours of Friday morning, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed.