Death of Jonah Lomu - Legend on and off rugby pitch

TRIBUTES have been pouring in to mark the untimely passing at the age of 40 of New Zealand rugby legend Jonah Lomu, the sport’s first global superstar. 

For sheer pace and power, there has never been another player like the man who stood six foot five inches tall, weighed 20 stone and had the speed of an Olympic sprinter.

Almost single-handedly, he destroyed other teams, as when he scored four tries in the space of 20 minutes against England, crossing the try line with three or four men hanging off him, leaving England floundering, something which endeared him to Irish fans.

But there was much more to this astonishing man than his brilliance on the rugby pitch.

As a boy he objected to his alcoholic father’s persistent beatings of his mother.

Forced to leave home when he was barely 14, he spent several years living rough on the streets before winning a school scholarship and discovering rugby.

Not alone was his own life transformed by his prowess and obvious love of the game, Lomu is also credited with forcing rugby union to go professional for fear of losing him to rugby league.

On developing kidney disease, he suffered for two decades before getting a transplant in 2004 and became a global ambassador for the game that he loved to play, thus continuing to bring joy to millions of fans everywhere.

It is a measure of the man that when his father gave up the drink, the family was reunited in friendship. An inspirational man.