Former All Black Jonah Lomu died suddenly in November. Just 40 years old at the time of his death, Lomu was rugby’s first global superstar and played a crucial role in professionalising the sport and establishing rugby union as a truly global game.

DEMOLITION JOB
Lomu played as a winger but at 6ft 5in tall and 19st, he was the size of a forward. He burst on to the scene at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, where New Zealand beat England 45-29 and Lomu – barely 20 years old – scored four unforgettable tries.

Lomu didn’t just run past the England players that day, he ran over them. After the game, a bewildered England captain Will Carling said Lomu was “a freak and the sooner he goes away the better.”

It was Lomu’s pace that astounded everyone – he had a 100m personal best of less than 11 seconds. Teams, at the time largely consisting of amateur players, simply weren’t prepared for somebody like him and had no way of stopping him.

The 1995 World Cup propelled him into the international spotlight and his performances on the pitch, coupled with an endearing humility off it, directly led to the sport of rugby union finally turning professional a year later.

It was after seeing Lomu play that media baron Rupert Murdoch was convinced that there was money to be made in galvanising rugby union, turning it into a fully professional sport and making broadcasts available to a global audience.

Lomu’s universal appeal and the increased broadcasting revenues helped take rugby to an audience it had previously been unable to reach. It’s no exaggeration to say that Lomu transformed rugby – on and off the pitch – and turned it into a global sport.

Commenting on his career shortly before his death, Lomu said the influence he had on rugby had only dawned on him after his retirement.

“The World Cup in South Africa changed everything,” Lomu told The Guardian in an interview in August 2015. “When I look at it now, I understand my impact more. When they show clips of me on the TV, my sons turn and look at me in awe.”

Biggest battle
On the pitch, Lomu found running past opponents effortless, but he faced his biggest battle off it. He was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a condition that severely truncated his career and by 2001 – at the age of 26 – was no longer an automatic pick for the All Blacks. He was left out of the 2003 World Cup squad.

After his retirement, aged just 32, Lomu took part in initiatives that promoted sport as a force for good. He became a Unicef ambassador and a member of the Champions for Peace club, a group of 54 elite athletes committed to peace in the world through sport.