Rugby: Lomu axed by All-Blacks

All Black wing sensation Jonah Lomu has been left out of the New Zealand side to play Western Samoa at Albany, near Auckland, next Saturday.

The 22-man squad named by coach Wayne Smith contains three new players prop Carl Hayman, fly-half Mark Ranby and flanker Marty Holah.

But Lomu’s absence from the side was the main surprise.

Smith said that while the winger had been in Britain playing for the Barbarians and in the world champion New Zealand Sevens team in recent weeks he had missed the first part of the All Blacks training camp and was not familiar with some of the moves that had been developed.

His omission is also a demonstration of the increasing need to rotate players due to the much-criticised heavy workload on modern players.