2014 | Anger Within - Jonah Lomu: The Story of a Rugby Legend

[Music] [Music] don't I don't really think about it too much because uh I think when you start thinking about things like that you uh start playing things on your mind I think when when it starts getting tough that's when you when I start thinking about start thinking about my two boys uh yeah my two boys and my wife and then uh you know it sort of gives me a bit of reality again and wanting to live a bit longer so yeah it's stough though cuz uh you know for 6 hours 4 to 6 hours you you're stuck to this machine but you know I guess that's uh it's better than the other option which isn't really an option this is p and pel of what I have to do to to live can't change anything I can only just hope and just do the things that I can I can control and this is one thing I can't sort of [Music] control back inside to lomu pass one pass two here he goes again bundling them off and the big man is over for his second Drive what can you say really with the ball in hand he's just Unstoppable isn't he he is [Music] Unstoppable [Applause] [Music] number 11 [Music] jalu [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] going you ready hold on hold on feet up on there this is significant for a lot of us who are friends and close friends with Danny sakona this is where we lost him and he died here uh he was stabbed so many times and cut up and and so forth um by someone who we knew and um it made um made a lot of us wake up um and realize you know what we were doing with our life and stuff like that and uh it was it was a waste it was a waste to lose him so he was so young um and also fun you know we we needed to we needed to figure out what we wanted to do um you we were all close together um myself my brother uh with Danny and you know there was a whole group of us that were really really close I guess it also gave me a decision to try and figure out what I can do for my life but it made me me uh it made me fight for what I wanted and what I needed and um to get what I want and uh this place did that to [Music] me when you come from the streets and you come from South Oakland and you come come from mangri or otara Pepto R you name it when you're in the streets you deal with the streets and you got Street rules and you know sometimes you get away of it and sometimes you don't but this is you know this is the life of that area I think the toughest part about my childhood is that it's not a normal childhood I was born in New Zealand Oakland at National Women's Hospital from there I was I spent a year here and you know and then basically my parents took me to Tonga U where I wasn't brought up by my parents I was brought up by my um my oldest uh my mom's oldest sister uh my auntie uh which basically um for five six years I called her mom and um and wasn't until I was about you know I was six and I came back to New Zealand um then that I found out who my real parents were and who I'd been calling Auntie was really my mother and a man that I never knew so you know it it was a bit of a an uprooting and a bit of a root Awakening and a bit of a change uh a huge change um in terms of where I grew up and where I you know when I was a Youngster you know running around bare feet um didn't care whether I had a top on or not uh and living off the land to being in a concrete jungle of Oakland City or you know of um South Oakland I guess it's a symbol for me more than in the asses because I always wondered what was always over the other side of the bridge I guess when I was really young um like when B mixing was a a big thing there would be a group of us me and group of my friends we used to ride uh from from mang itself and all the way out to Mission Bay and sters and that was done every weekend it was a lot of fun um my parents always wondered where I was cuz I always coming home really late and um you doing things that you weren't supposed to do I'm at that age um what was it I was 8 n when I used to know that I was in trouble uh from my parents I used to come here and I used to sleep on this bridge because our parents are working long hours um our parents weren't about most of the time because they were working to put money on the table um so you'd always get up to mischief and when you're young um that was one of the things you get up to go out fight cause trouble um that was the I guess that's what it was like growing up in South Oakland there wasn't really much to do he didn't really have too much in terms of money and that so you'd end up hopping on a bus heading into town uh or grabbing alcohol and that and causing a bit of trouble as you always know when you grow up in that sort of Arena you know if your friends have to throw down you go down with them you know and um you do that sort of thing and and you jump into it and you know I was traveling down a path where honestly I shouldn't really be traveling down you know I was hanging out with people that you you know now either 6 foot under the ground or if not they're in jail there were days that you come home in a police car but that's part and parcel of it there were days that you come home and you were beaten up by somebody uh from getting kicked in the head and and so forth but that was part of growing up you know you you won all your fights but you're going to come home bruis or if not you knew you were outnumbered so you better got you better have some really good running shoes on if you touch somebody from one area and they all know each other but the one thing you make sure is that they don't know who you are and don't know where you live because um yeah they don't they're not shy of coming and knocking on your door and knock you over and the thing is we don't do the things that like the US do we don't do the driveby shootings and so forth we knock on your door and take your head off there it's that sort of thing it's um it's a tough area but uh proud to come from it um I think it made me battle Harden for for [Music] rugby the paros of the attack in the otara shopping mall stunned and disquieted the people of South Oakland one man killed [Music] instantly when you have relatives that die uh violently um in in ways that you cannot comprehend um you know you you just don't know what to do um but at that time you know there was a there there was a lot of there was a roof between uh you know the the and the Polynesian community and the thing was mis identity wrong place at the wrong time and um the thing was he he got he ended up in uh ended up getting decapitated uh got his head cut off and you know this is not [Music] cool I sh Jonah to wisley college because I think is the best for his academic in um boarding school I think is best for him is not is far from some other children not to go on the street that's what I wish for him I remember I wasn't happy about govern um I was 12 at the time 12 13 at the time the first time I came across Jonah uh was really in his mother's car hey had arrived and come to see me I live on campus and uh she was concerned that Jonah's application into Wesley had not proceeded the way she'd hoped it had um so uh heppie the mother came and asked me to go and find out from the then uh Deputy principal Graham Watson and I checked with graham Watson and they had some concerns about Jonah's background and so on so I had to go back and give hippie a little bit of a sad news that they were reluctant to enroll him and hippie then said please could you see if uh if you can get him to come so I went back to Graham Watson and certainly at that stage Graham thought we'll give him a go um and I just remember uh Jonah in the car with his mother didn't get out of the car and I remember happy crying with tears and as she drove away I looked down at the concrete step it was a sunny bright day but there on the step were the evaporating tears of joy and I just thought I wish I had my camera um these are the tears of joy the love of a mother for his son the greatest thing to ever happened to me was to go to wisley college purely because um it saved me to tell the truth it really saved me you at first I hated it just purely because of what it stood for uh I had all this freedom and it was taken away from me but uh when I I sort of got into wizzy college life it um you felt a sense of belonging a sense of Pride um in your in your uniform your clothes and U the first first bow will go at 6 and um basically you're up make your bed uniform on and then you're out and you're doing your chores before 8:00 8:00 B goes and U it's time for you to be at breakfast and by the time you finish breakfast it's like everybody into to Chapel so you know it was it was an old military styled school I firmly believe that the you know especially the Tongans they send their uh children to the school because of the Christian faith uh because uh in the island uh everybody belonged to a denominations until they came to New Zealand they seem to drift away from all of those disciplines in life and I think they they find wisley as a place to send their boys in [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] here [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] wizy College was an interesting interesting time uh I found it difficult because you know you know I was a troubled child when I first started my first year it was just um it was a living hell in the sense of you know you just you tried things on you were doing things that you shouldn't be doing when I realized that I couldn't my parents would not be able to sustain paying that the whole time and I got kicked out of out of school as well um I was very fortunate at the time that the deputy principal of the school um discovered that I had a really big vertical jump I first noticed Jonah on the Athletics field uh in in February of his first year at school and uh he was noticeable because he was winning all his races and and was a standout athlete uh during that day I used to be the timekeeper and I would stand at the 100 meter Finish Line ready to take the stopwatch and there is nothing scarier than seeing this this monster of a of a boy um hurling himself at you he had a funny sort of aope when he ran it was it was an incredible sight and you just thought I'm not going to get in the way of this man one day I went to Wesley college and there was a young guy there who uh was pretty solid that he wasn't a rugby player he was a leak player he just played leak you know but he would spin the ball on his finger and back heel it and catch it around his shoulder and you know so he he was sort of trying to impress like look at me but I'm not going to play rugby I'm a leagy I approached the deputy principal of the day who was the first 15 coach and I said look I know he's only going to be a year 10 student next year but you really do need to give him a trial he come up and he said oh hey um want to trial out for rugby and the interesting thing about it was that my line was man rugby never played it people say You must have uh spotted Talent a blind man would have spotted jalo a talent so there's no cleverness in that so he had a trial and he made the first 15 as a lock which is pretty unusual because most boys at 14 or 15 don't have the um coordination or the strength or to actually be in the first 15 yeah I made the first 15 and and for form at the time and still now um which is still the youngest first de member by the end of that i' i' had a national title my first year at at first 15 I started learning about rugby and um I realized I was getting better at the game but what I didn't tell anybody else was I was playing league and I was I was I was playing outside of the school and playing inside the school I was playing in ockland for Mount Wellington with my cousins and so forth and they were picking me up without the school knowing but also at the same time I was playing for the school so I play in the morning play in the afternoon well the the thing was you did your school in there in the mornings and then you did your sport in the afternoon the thing was I wasn't going to this school in the morning I was going to playing rugby in the morning and this went on for quite a while and it wasn't until a leader got sent to the school that I was selected for for the Oakland team and school right back is you must have the wrong Jonah because uh he's at boarding school and he doesn't leave these grounds and uh when they traced it back then they realized that it was um and then my parents got caught in and so forth but that was it was just me um I think it was the part of me from growing up in South Oakland and the loyalty to your friends and and your relatives and so forth remix I think we got a tell them Evacuate the animals Escape they made it at the gate and now we constantly killing and getting shots that they be missing illegal fan fishing and they added a vision he never listen to the ones that told them different cuz they the definition of the ones who never win it they telling them you made it he know that ain't the case surely there must be more this only be a tast he be going hard oh so hard tell me where the universe will be no STS probably like you Ze will be without me trying to start the call and you ain't even got the keys and I'm looking for a reason me why I shouldn't take the soul and run and do what other brothers couldn't I'll be dropping my shoulders so nobody can bump me till they consider me one of the best in the country gu the biggest thing for me with this bridge and stuff is that like this is where I get away you know just get out here and dream and and think about things but man when I used to get angry it was all all driven at my dad more than anything else at times he was the best dad that he could be it was just when he drank it's when me and him disagree um he was quite violent when he was drunk I guess the the toughest part is that you know Mom was always there to to protect the kids and and Dad Dad got angry and so forth wanted to bash us she'll get in the way and uh and she'll you know she get beaten up quite badly sometimes you know and it's and it's tough to take yeah just built up a lot of things inside [Music] me it was pretty scary cuz like you know I came from a religious family and and so forth and um when I didn't listen to my dad and I rebelled against him you [Music] know he said that uh you know uh God himself will um will punish me and punish me badly and um and that I was going against them but [Music] um he that was tough to swallow that was hard I wasn't I wasn't just physically scarred from a lot of things but I was also you know the mental games that he played spiritually really that was tough I guess that was the the thing and that was one of my biggest driving drivers really to get through things is that uh when I was playing when I found it hard you know I just fought f of my father and that got me through it that anger got me through it uh spent most of my life you know uh fighting with that you fighting with that um inside me and um yeah it's it's taken a long time taken a real long time to to be able to come to terms with what my dad was you know and uh I took it out on other people I took it out on other things and that's why what um I guess that was one one of the biggest and hardest things to to deal with so yeah I had to rebuild that bridge and uh me and Dad you know we're in we're in speaking terms and you know we're good and a lot of it was that um having the two boys has really changed things really more than anything else changed it because it um you know I want my sons to know their grandfather before he leaves this planet and uh whatever the issues are between me and my dad shouldn't be issues or for my two [Music] [Music] sons first time I met Jonah was at wisley College uh they had a sevens team and uh they asked me I was playing for New Zealand Sevens they asked me to come out and take a training and that's where I first met him 6'5 big big guy he could run really fast and everything about him was big you know the big legs and the big arms big nostrils yeah he was a big man I started at 8990 kilos when I first made the first of Dean and at the end of that year I was 102 103 so I grew with the team and by the time I left school I was about 117 116 somewhere in there so you know I just kept growing with it and kept training and it was just that I was just wanting to learn running to learn learn learn Lear the time that we got to closest together was when he was in County's rep team living in manger and we had to travel over to the North Harbor which was about a 40-minute drive and he couldn't stay over there ability for some reason he had to stay at home so I picked him up every day and drove we drove him to the NorthShore now in those days I had an old Japanese Imported Car that once I went over 990ks it would go ding ding ding ding well he thought this was hilarious this car that went Ting Ting Ting and I would have my sort of Music on or talk back radio as soon as he jumped in the car without even saying good morning good afternoon whatever he'd put his tape on and we'd have music that I absolutely hate I say son have we got to have this on yeah yeah yeah just gets me in the mood just you know I said fair enough fair enough if we have this music on the way to the game you got to have my music on the way home yeah yeah whatever so we go to the game he'd play he'd be outstanding as always and uh when he was ready to go we we come home and uh jump in the car again and do the i' take the tape out and put on Elvis presy Return to sender and um rather than this being rather than him being disappointed and down about it he started to like Elvis you know I think that we found that we had the very similar sense of humor a Welshman from the other side of the world and this young Tong and boy from New Zealand and we just shared a love of music and we seem to it it off from there as I keep saying to a lot of people he was a gentle giant you know he when he was head HED by anybody he smiled back but he will give it back you know twice and uh he loves the physicality of the game and uh one of the things that he never back off you know from any physical situations where he have to face the opposition it was like my my schooling ground in preparing me for after after leaving school but I always thought that I was going to go back to League be League purely because uh um I fought well at the time that was the only professional sport rugby wasn't professional U you know so that was the only way I was going to be able to support myself and and so forth and I try to follow Jonah right through from his first year in the first 15 right through to his final year when I coach him in the first 15 and when he left school I make sure he didn't go to League because I want him to be the first tongue in all black as far as I'm concerned and I make sure that he's exposed to the top level rugby straight from school and he was Counties have offered that and when it came to him leaving school um every province in New Zealand was chasing after Jon alomo and uh he came to um uh amanaki palavi his Tong and teacher brought him to see C Phil he wants to talk to you we sat down and we talked about but what he wanted to do and I said you need a career not a job a job driving a track or we' lost one of our Count's players to Oakland who they took down there and give a job cutting grass I wanted Jonah to have a career you know there was no professional rugby so we talked about it I had a phone call that night and he said Phil I'm going to stay in counties with you well like it was like winning Lotto you know for him for Jon Alo to stay in counties with us and we were just winning the second division champ ship it was immense Jonah when he came first into my my world at counties um he had just left school and uh he came to our first training incredibly Keen 19 years old strapping young man and all we basically did was try and and give him some things that he could work within the sevens concept Bob lendrum was coaching the the county sevens it was a great sevens man all black as well and we had a very good County Sev myself and my fellow selector ear curtain were watching the national sevens tournament uh in 1994 and Jonah had just come out of school and he was playing in the counties uh sevs team and was making a real serious impact on the sevens lots of pace lots of power and the ability to beat people and very good ball skills when we went to the sevens we basically told him that we're going to give him the ball sevens there heaps of room and he was going to go out there and express himself and he did at will he ran around ran through ran over everybody that had came across and and 94 counties won the sevens and I could honestly say most probably 70% of the reason we won was because of Jonah I I sort of knew that in paliston North when I selected him for my side uh for the first time to make the New Zealand team it was just a matter of time before Jonah would go on to to bigger and brighter things and that's to be an all black and um and that certainly happened I mean in Hong Kong in '94 it launched his career [Music] really when I arrived there and I remember looking up and I was going fire out I'm in Hong Kong you fantastic city um stays alive all night long I'm about to play for my country Eric rushy was our captaining at the time we ared at the grounds and we started looking at things and uh you can feel the the atmosphere it's what really drove me to want to be an all have play a tournament when you've got someone like John alomo on your team the important thing is particularly around set feish you want to give him the ball you don't want to take the ball away from him and because in the game of sevens it allows you to express yourself and by jingos the joner express himself in the game of seven so New Zealand using Seymour L and Rush as their forwards I remember he made his debut in the Hong Kong sevens and I have an elder brother called gram who lives in Australia he comes on the phone to me he says you will not believe this kid called lumu he is fantastic there were some young boys all very fast players but none were as quick as him in 15s I can run and hide you know I can run behind the 14 guys they can defend when I see John I run away I don't want to stay on that side but in sevens you have to be somewhere you'll meet Jonah definitely whether you cannot run away whether you run away it's got to be five six you are in front that's what I did I was trying to run away from Jonah in the end I have to take a Lim once I was like closing my eyes and he hit me like I flew about I can like flew from Australia to New Zealand it was really difficult to play with him in seven FG Australia and New Zealand are in well the impression started well before the final he was it was pretty much a single a single man demolition job he was just toying it was like boys playing men um when they actually defending him he was able to drag at least two to sometimes three Defenders to make a tackle on him and he did sometimes break those tackles or he'd be able to get his hands free because he has very good ball skills for sevens and he'd get an offload he's Unstoppable so trying to tackle him one-on-one was very very difficult and plus he ran like the wind and very very agile for a big man so he was like the incredible incredible package he went to Hong Kong come back and he said to me um Lori man have approached me to play on the wing and I said and he said I don't know much about playing on the wing I said no this is your you got people that you can ring I'll ring people that you know to give you advice how to play on the win he came in in 1994 and and clearly struggled a little bit positionally I was a little surprised because that he went to the old black so early because remembering in the 15's game he was a number eight in the seventh game you can play an any position for someone like Jonah so it's easier to make that transformation into a Winger at that age in the game of 15s at the international level and when you're playing the French you're playing against some of the best backlines in the world you know he got exposed here come the All Blacks Led Out by the captain Shan Fitzpatrick and Philip sandre leads out the French team Jon alamu the youngest all black ever 19 years and 45 days old and then you had to question was it too early and I personally think it perhaps it was it was a year too early um but because he made a complete change from a number eight two into an international Winger and it's pretty difficult to make that change in such a short space of time uh which the first time ever U that we've lost to France and New Zealand a series and unfortunately Jonah um was playing against some of the Best Wingers in World rugby and for a player that was starting out his career um was a very D difficult initiation um but one that was going to prove uh to be very beneficial going forward [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Applause] look you remember you put yourself in the same shoe 18 years old playing against France you know seriously that's like you know and I think it was a year before he was out of school school year school boy school boy there's not even a blended like you know school boy then under 21s and then you get a trial well you missed out this year no what you do Chuck them straight in there so that's why you have to put things in perspective there it is again Gonzalez Del B andan go what a superb movement what a try one of the old time tries they just dropped him straight away and it really hurt him rejection was not a good thing and not a thing that Jonah took kindly to and he felt betrayed a little bit and he didn't blame that he was dropped he knew that he hadn't played very well but it uh it it it it showed him straight away that there's no favors if you don't do the job you're gone there was a time there when he wanted to go to rugby league because he thought uh that the old black selectors uh uh didn't want him uh to be in the old blacks he never said much to me but he turned this day and said to me uh I'm going to go to the Sydney Bulldogs I've had an offer on the table to go to the syy Sydney bulldogs for 3 years I tried to explain that rugby was was not about um the coaches it was about the guys you play with so just play with the boys don't worry about the [Music] rest before the 95 World Cup this is one of the places where I had to come and run to get fit to be able to to do the things that I needed to to do to to get into the all black team and um there was a lot of blood a lot of swearing and a lot of sweat that was uh shed here and a lot of tears but um that's part and parcel of what we had to do at the beginning of 95 we had a series of camps for all black contenders Brian laor colum M and myself uh met with Jonah and said that if we were selecting uh the all black team tomorrow we wouldn't be able to select him due to his level of Fitness we trained really hard in ' 95 we you know we trained hard on anyone and probably the person that found it hardest and probably wanted to do as well as anyone was J alomo there were 20 150 M runs in this T at hotest Hell Tapo and we had to do them repetitively I awfully hard to do particularly for aerobic capacity Jonah ended up of the 20 we were doing he was suddenly 18 on 18 after everybody had finished at 20 he was heing like like nothing on Earth we was going and all I could hear I was halfway down the pitch I could hear this incredible scream and he was running with rashi rashi was the only one running with him because everyone else finished and Rashi was telling him that if he stopped he'd kill him he had to keep on running it was those bloody white men down the other end waiting for him to give up and that all they wanted was for him to give up so they could drop him and he's cutting him and cing him like nothing I know and the language was even worse than that he was calling him a big black whatever it was and only Russia could get away with it then Lori said to rashy do you want to do another one and Rashi said yes right he said we'll do another one if he'd have said no he'd have said oh you don't so we'll do another one so he couldn't win yeah it was all thanks to to the trainers and all my friends you know kicking me up the backside and you know come on Jonah getting me to to run he comes back for 19 and the team were all lining up on the goal line watching him no one said a word while he ran it was absolutely deathly silenced by the we of a Jonah fighting for breath and then they decided he was trying so hard which was one Fitzy Captain took off after him zenan Brook then went then Rob Brooke went and then someone said well I don't want to be the last one standing here on the line he we might as well all go so the whole team went with Jonah on this last run encouraging him to keep on going they wouldn't let him stop but they were there to help him to get to the other end now that is just an indication of what the old black family is they wanted them in the All Blacks so they they knew for us to select them they had to get them fitter and they did their bit to to achieve that and Main and I stuck out a hand he said we've made it love accepted him he's going to be [Music] [Music] it now at the end of those camps we he still wasn't fit enough and we allowed him to be selected for the New Zealand Sevens uh and when no other All Blacks had been selected he thought that meant the end of the line for him the media all said if Lori lets anybody to play in the sevens it means that he doesn't want them for the World Cup that really geted Jonah because he thought Lori had been un faithful to him and told him lies and Lori hadn't Lor had been straight all along the line but Jonah took it as rejection again that the only reason he's in the sevens is he wanted for the 15 we wanted Jonah for two reasons to work under Gordon titens one he would get him an awful lot fitter because sevens is a game that Jonah loved he's handling the ball a lot so he's going to work a lot harder at it and two Gordon was also a very very good skills [Music] coach [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I mean what we saw he did in 95 he single-handedly just won me the tournament in 95 incredible but uh again Jonah at trainings never ever gave in he might have been up to where the other guys were but he never gave in and I didn't know then probably then and no one did that how sick Jonah really was so that even when you think about that it's certainly uh for someone certainly a lot of Courage because I pushed my players mentally and physically very very hard and uh and Jonah never once ever backed out I did go to the World Cup in ' 95 and I knew that I was sick um and then uh I had to confirm it to the rest of the world in ' 96 that I was you know I was hoping that you know that you know would get better but um it never did but you know I would never change anything um it's made me me and um it's made me a bit of me too [Music] the key thing for me was that I didn't want my doctors telling the coaches because one of two things could happen is that the coach goes oh well if he's sick then we don't want him in the team cu the last thing we W is him being a hindrance on the on the boys and also I wanted to make the team all my own merits not because of they feel sorry for me or anything like that so you know I had to make sacrifices huge [Music] sacrifices [Music] I wanted it to be my number I wanted to be the best number 11 that could be when they came to South Africa 1995 there was this young kid that nobody really knew how good he was but everybody heard that this is this very special athlete that's coming with New Zealand to the World Cup he emerged as an incredible player um on a world stage and I think everyone will remember that 1995 World Cup as a launching pad for what we now talk about is the the Jon alomo effect he was on the the scene he was playing rugby at exactly the right time for Jon alomo people remember that World Cup for Nelson Mandela and spring box winning but from a rugby perspective John ALU put rugby on the world map yeah those people in the USA talking about John he was on all the front pages of most of the papers around the world um he had offers coming in from anywhere from the from the NFL from rugby league um which was creating interest in our [Music] game [Music] when Jal left South Africa he did things on the Rugby field that nobody has done before he was a [Music] legend kicked away to Lau oh what can you say really with the ball in hand he's just Unstoppable isn't he he is Unstoppable the beat they get it again I don't believe this he's got it up the crfi that is stunning when I ran out onto the field I always thought to myself I was the best player in my position and um whoever was coming up against me didn't matter who they were didn't didn't care where they came from and so forth um I was going to dominate them uh whether if it was with speed and if I they match me for that then they have to deal with me physically and U and that was the one thing that I had that a lot of other players didn't have was that I could play the two games I could play the Speed game and I could also play the physical game he did things on the Rugby field that no other person could do before then and ever since there's no one who's been able to do that same thing either so yeah not just as a Winger I think it's just as a rugby player stop he was uh he was out of the ordinary took him down they didn't hold him and they go to the corner now and there's where kronfeld joins rips it away and scores the try he's basically a lock you know 6'4 playing on the wing doing sub 11 second hundreds you know I mean that's just unheard of and and then also to be that size and that Nimble stepping and siing and all the great things of a Winger and and then having that massive mitt that just just to Palm people away we knew he was he was an exceptional player we thought we could tackle him but until you came up against him on the pitch you suddenly realized that this guy was very very special he had an ability to step out of a tackle if you could not get him he would step out and keep going and um you know he must have been fantastic to play with because you know in that World Cup he was so much bigger and stronger and faster than than anyone and that gave the New Zealand team obviously a huge advantage and the All Blacks played to him they used him an awful lot um um he got a try against uh against us in the first few minutes New Zealand on the charge and jono with another chance here Lomo goes round Greg Joiner and the big man has scored whenever this man gets the ball there's so much Danger he scores his third Drive in New Zealand I remember after we lost um to New Zealand and and I finished playing rugby finished I retired and um I met the Underwood Boys in in the airport the next day and they came over and they said oh bad luck and he said what's he like and obviously we knew who he was talking about and um you know I just said oh well you know you'll be fine no problem and just be strong and all this and I remember the following weekend uh Newlands in Cape Town and I was sitting with my wife watching the game and just [Music] laughing and I suspect some of the comments that my brother said uh about um Jonah which from my understanding having spoken to him was done in the most respectful way but of course depends how it's written and how it's taken uh obviously galvanized not only the kiwis but obviously uh Jonah and um so he came out uh with a point to prove I remember sitting in the team team meeting on the Friday night before we before we played them and and Jack R asked the question he's how are we going to contain Jon ALU and I think he asked Tony Underwood the question and Tony Underwood said well you know I'm going to get in his face I'm going to make sure I just get in his face all day and and grab hold of him and then two or three guys can come in and and stop [Music] him and I remember the night before the game here uh was Seaford Patrick's um U meeting we're all sort of like an all in a all in a semicircle lry Mains just walked in and just he just wants to see the color of your eyes see the color of your eyes here looked around and um he said you know he just basically said good luck walked out Sean fatrick sort of uh took over he said look I just want to you know it's a big game for us semi-final playing England uh there's only a couple little words and uh he went around to to Jonah and uh said Jonah you know how do you sort of how do you feel how do you feel at the moment is anything you would like to say and Jonah just turned around and he just says guys I'm prepared to die in the black Jersey tomorrow and the whole room went like this just like that absolute silence and he went and that was it and I went bloody hell and that just made my heads were like this and you sort of think you could bottle that that that adrenaline that rush and that room there right right you were just so pumped up for that game there and I just and there was nothing else nothing else so we just sat there we just sat there for about 2 or 3 minutes and we just looked around the room here just absolute silence you couldn't hear a pin drop Sean Fitzpatrick ready to bring the All Blacks onto the field the big question is are New Zealand able to beat will carlings English side today Caren brings out the England team for the 52nd time [Music] the thing is they want me to play the fast game because play the physical game with me you ain't going to beat me and um and that's one thing I loved was the physical contact and uh nine times out of 10 I will dominate you physically I knew that from the beginning and the thing is I always felt that you know you know they had to feel me physically first before they had to deal with the speed side you know and you're playing this mental game with them once again Mash has it for the fourth time pass out to low under this is the [Music] big Tony Underwood steps inconveniently ball goes over the top bounc into Jonah's hand Jonah then takes the outside outside break will callling coming across and will callling then ankle Taps him so now as a number 15 as a fullback as we all know we all the love our rugby is if a 15 has to make a tackle that means 14 other people have missed that person to make the tackle so so therefore he's run through 14 other blocks to get to me as a 15 but I remember him stumbling towards me so as callings and then the next thing I remember is thinking right he's going at that angle at 18 Stone and I'm at that angle at 13 stone I'm thinking yeah there's going to be a bit of a train smash here and um so I thought to myself right what do my teachers teach me to go go low take his ankles out drive through the tackle and the next thing I remember he lying on my back and turning to the right and um Jonah was was putting the ball down third time going straight over the top of Michael cat well how just how do you stop a man like that I then got to to look back up and there was Robin Brooke tapping me on the face saying mate there's a bit more of that to come so so that was my initiation to to Joan alomi really well when he scor that try you if you notice I'm going like this and it's not because I'm cheering it's because I'm saying never pass me the bloody ball I keep telling them they had a show called this is your life not long ago and I said to them if Jonah had to pass that ball into me it would be me doing this is your life Glenn o the game carries on and Z Brook huge pass on the outside to Osborne this is l again L is through oh Rob Andrew was crushed aside by the big man my first touch of the ball didn't look at anyone else just my opposite number and run straight into him so you can feel how heavy I was how strong I was then come back out go at him again come back and then the third time run straight at him and then just step to the left and go on the outside then you know and then they go okay what the hell am I going to deal with now is he going to come straight at me is he going to run around me so it's that mind game that you play so you kept this going and by the time you finish the person's going oh man I don't want to be [Music] [Applause] here you try and play in the semi-final of the World Cup to to to qualify for the the final and you try and do that and in 20 minutes you see it all blown [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] away and that was when we started talking about this uh this athlete I mean if you everybody saw the tries that he scored that was the first time people okay now what do we [Music] do [Music] before uh the 1995 Rugby World Cup final everybody that not everybody but all the black people 98% of the black people whenever the All Blacks come to South Africa they support the All Blacks and here Jonah L is a black guy also playing for the All Blacks on the LIF thing playing in a final against the spring box we're both Polynesian and we're both selected for the All Blacks at a a similar age uh I was selected at the age of 19 and in 1970 I was one of the first players with dark blood to be allowed into South Africa during the apartheid regime we had a lot of support particularly from the colard uh community and so at airports and and at hotels we were mobbed uh like the current players players are so that was quite special and and Jonah when he came along I think um very similar had changed at a time when we when we got back in the F Nel Manel asked the whole country to support the sprok they were obviously behind us as a sprok team but whenever Lomo will have the ball they probably were supporting Lomo as as individual for the All Blacks but not the all black team the South African mindset is a interesting mindset you know everybody wanted to tackle Jona everybody wanted to be the first guy to smash him and try and bring him down that's just the South African mindset in the Chang room before the game it was to calm the players down because the guys were incredibly excited they were they wanted to go out and you know we had to make sure that the guys were very calm the best memory for me was when Nelson Mandela walked into the change room just before the Rugby World Cup final um when he came in uh and surprised us as a team uh and tell us you know to wish us luck and wish us all the K give us all the best wishes for the game um and know once he have left um no one spoke everybody's quiet even the coach said he got nothing to say anymore cuz if you're not motivated by now your president walk into the change room with a rugby jersey and a rugby cap you know what else can motivate you at the time and it was just amazing um I can getting go bums as I sit there um that uh uh he was a great inspiration for us uh but we still had to go out and stop John ala the Nela Mandela thing is you know is huge like doesn't matter how many times you meet the person never changes you know the feeling that you know you're meeting a a fantastic man a great man Mr Mandela um will always be incredibly friendly he he would ask normally how are you and how you feeling and because what Joon alomo was on the front pages of every newspaper it was [Applause] natural and when turned around and he can see the number six on the back of his shirt and he were going oh hell and when you're talking about playing a mental game with somebody man s afca the perfect mental game bringing someone out like [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] that and when the All Blacks did the Haka Jon alomo was getting closer and closer to to to James small you know he was really excited and what happened is cuas Visa alock he sort of broke away and he went to stand in front of John ala as if to say you've got to run over me first before you get to to James and that epitomized the team spirit in the South African team good jump from Ian Jones beautifully taken by the New Zealander and lower straight through the middle breaks one tackle the pass James small did a fantastic job um cutting Jonah off to come inside you know if if Jonah got space he's so quick he's so strong he's so angry it's very difficult to stop him but if you can get him into traffic you know that was always the the the [Music] idea inside got [Applause] [Music] away [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it comes sty up goes the kicky so what was going through my mind when Joel stransky dropped the goal they were still for left so what was going through my mind is catch the restart make sure we get into their half make sure we keep them calm because a guy like Jon Alo can score a try from inside he's 22 so the whole thought process for me as a captain was okay guys we need to catch a restart we need to consolidate we need to get into the half we need to start playing again because it's never over until the final whistle blows then it's over back it comes to use van the best Hazen little knock forward but that's it South Africa have won the World Cup having been back in International Rugby for less than three years and having Not Taken part in the First it hurts losing that game uh but to see how um world rugby uh bought a country together um a man like Nelson Mandela um and also Fran Pina you know the combined of the spring box in the nation uh because of what the spring box stood for before and what it stands for now uh watching the vehicle of the spring box now growing that Nation uh showing that Pride um has changed a whole lot of things and um it's fantastic to see and where rugby has grown from 95 to what it is now is fantastic of course we understood the politics in South Africa of course we understood um what it would mean to do well for the country we never in our wildest dreams never ever could have imagined the effect that rugby had on South [Applause] Africa you know when he first come out in in '95 you know I was about 12 and you know you come into the into the rugby scene and played in the world Cup South Africa you know there was this big brown Polynesian guy you know on the wing and that kind of you know inspired most of us you know kids it soonly inspired myself you know here Jonah was you know throwing off tacklers and uh you know running a menace on the field you know and it it brought a lot of joy to probably mostly Pacific G kids and and and rugby players and and mainly more or less KS I think I think that uh yeah all Polynesian boys are very very humble at making into the All Blacks and they're very shy you know shy race and Jonah is no exception and and something you know he just he was very humble uh person and just making into the All Blacks it's it's a huge achievement for a for a young boy you know from where he come from and if I I look back to the era that I played in um I think one of the iconic players that I looked up to was Brian Williams the thing that characterizes Jonah is that he's a very modest man um he was always uh very respectful um and he he he never put himself on a pedestal he he was a worldwide star uh when I coached him but um he was always uh such a pleasant uh guy Pleasant player to deal with so um he's he's a very special person as well as a special rugby player I think that's what I really appreciate of Jonah most is that he you know when you take away everything else the Superstar uh you know the super athlete uh you know the Rich and Famous part of who he is what I love about Jonah is that he's he's always had this really soft [Music] heart [Music] [Music] the one thing that doesn't change when you come into the changing room is your locker you go in there you know um it's always the same never greets you any different um but you know you remember what what order you need to hang up your clothes and uh especially when you you know uh before a game for me towards that it's that order of me doing the things that I do in an area like this is socks shorts [ __ ] and then before I run out and before I put on my old black juicy I put my juicy over my head and I always turn around and I say say my prayers before the game and uh you know blessing the ground the players both teams and may we uh you know making sure that both teams no nobody gets injured in in the game it's not about winning it's about just making sure that the guys are protected well out there on the field and uh making sure that you that we we have a good safe game and uh then I get up after I say c a me put my shirt on and then it's came on it's time to go I sort of floated along I was baptized as a as a Methodist as a Christian boy but the thing is I never really felt I was I was fitting as some a lot of kids do when you come from a very religious background um some follow that path some stray off that path and some fall off that path for me I fell off it well off it um and then it wasn't until later on and I started um thinking and thinking more about about religion finally came down to the Mormon faith but I think the greatest thing is that my mother said to us was I don't care what church you go to it's just as long as you still praying to God and um I found peace Harmony and um and my kids you know and and this is the way we I believe me and my wife want to make sure that our kids grow up get get up T get up I think he was a true professional um particularly given the popularity and the demands that were put on him by what happened in 1995 um I think he handled all that very well he never asked to be treated differently and that's the mark of the man because I think he wanted he always saw himself as a team man and part of a team he did not want to be treated as anything special we had to do certain things differently because we needed to manage him in the sense of publicity I think his illness impacted significantly Honor's ability to be 100% great player all of the time um I had to nurse him three of the four years that I coached the All Blacks I had to nurse him to get him to a fitness state where we could actually unleash him the condition was managed by doc Mayu the all black doctor and he did a very good job of it um he managed it through um good medication um obviously within the boundaries of the drug laws that were in existence at the time and of course it affected Jonah in different ways sometimes he put on a lot of weight when he was on taking the steroids um of course that was all kept confidential and and uh was all legal and sometimes Jonah would get the a cold and it would really knock him because he didn't have the the immune system that other people had man in my Prime when I was playing for the O I was the most heavily tested rugby player on the planet by a mile I was getting drug tested pretty much every second day and the thing is it got to the stage where I pretty much knew the drug testers I was going yeah okay yeah I had nothing to hide um they they could do whatever test they wanted everyone that's great has knockers everyone that makes it to the top uh will always have people who want to criticize unfortunately the tall poppy syndrome is is alive and well and it's alive and well in this country and so Jonah faced that sort of criticism because people had him on on a um pedestal and therefore some were trying to knock him over to tell the truth those people can write whatever they like but at the end of the day I'm the one that has to get up in the morning and train they don't have to do that [ __ ] the only thing that can hurt me and the only thing that bothers me is if not doing my job correctly out on the Rugby field [Music] [Music] support oh my that look on his own what a super [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Dr so we we let him open it put her over the fireplace to scare the kids e yeah so now good mes Jo tell us tell us for a minute about quickly about Joey and T um probably one of the best cers that ever played the game T Joi I guess my my good friend Joi he um was probably the most underestimated Winger ever to play the game um unlucky with the illness to strike him U same as me um I was fortunate that I got a couple more years on him terms of playing but um to those day still the fastest man I've ever seen in Boots but more than that is just the friendships that I had with them is a lot like with you guys thank you for uh for coming and making this day a great day I just want to make it more uh you know days like this that we can all sort of get together doesn't matter where it is whe if it's on the beach or stuff like that I just want to make sure the friends and family don't forget each other and uh especially after all how long it's been and uh it's great to see you all um I'm just a bit sad dad's not here with us but um just makes us want to cherish the days that we have with each other even more it's been a while but um you know it's a long time coming but it's great to see everyone a very kind man soft um who changed dramatic Ally when he got on the football field when you're playing a contact sport like rugby what happens on the Rugby field stays on the field you pretty much have to be a jackal and hide sort of thing the person that you're off the field is who who you are U the person who are on the Rugby field is a completely different person you you become this uh crazy local uh person [Applause] it was a powerful um surge of of energy and and strength but also at the same time it's um learning how to harness that that energy because sometimes you can go over the top and then you forget about the game so you know you you make sure that that you performed it the way it should be performed and the way that the married people would be proud of you doing [Applause] [Music] it [Music] World Cup 99 versus England twickingham I think that was in my mind the special moment I saw as a rugby [Applause] player this was a try where he got the ball 60 or 70 M out he beat people with swerve and pace and then he had I think three or four Englishmen all over him as he got near the line I think lence delagio was one and he managed to score at the end of what I thought was special [Music] it takes two teams to to make an amazing game and uh France has always been a bogy team and they always a difficult team to beat but um I guess the history between New Zealand and France is also amazing [Music] for [Applause] J for [Music] [Music] for danger here on to Leu Leu steps [Music] [Applause] [Music] outside [Music] for for is about fighting to win not physically fighting fighting but yeah being physically demanding and dominating on your opposition within your rules and the thing is it's um I found it natural because uh growing up in South Oakland you had to have all these attributes to grow up in that Arena uh to be able to survive I translated what I leared on the street to playing on the on the Rugby field back to Wilson back inside pass one pass two here he goes again over like ter is in those RS at the Domin he's going to go in Domin when you play a team sport you got to be part of a team and the thing is you can't be a great player without the other players and this is the thing you got to learn about rugby is that it's a selfless game um you have to sacrifice yourself at certain times to create something for someone else and that's what makes a team I've never felt um that I was above any other player the thing is I've always felt that I was I was always wanted to be the best player in my position but I would never thought I was above anyone else in my team for us to win we need the whole network in our team the whole Synergy to go to to win this because we know SS they are our boy team they are Sensational when they play I don't know how they do it do they have 20 cups of teas or 20 coffees I have no idea they are a great team [Music] for me definitely 99 World Cup was the was the worst changer room uh memory that I could have uh but the better team went on the [Music] day for me the game is uh the game is like life it's a short way of living your life fast that's part and parle of what rugby is um you win some you lose some some are more important than the others but you know as an or U you want to win every game a standard transplant operation for a kidney transplant we place the kidney very low in the abdomen um way down the bottom of the abdominal cavity and that's for convenience in Jonah's case because he's told us that he uh wants to potentially play rugby again we thought that the safe place to put it was up near a native kidney right up up underneath the rib cage here so that it' be a lot more protected just like a native kidney [Music] is it was one thing that I you know you you had to accept as a as a sportsman is that um you're going to lose and you're going to win sometimes and uh I was very fortunate that um you know I won more games than I lost [Music] I've always talked about giving back to the game and my initial reason why I left was to do that was to help grow the game the reason why I went to Mar was because I wanted to see that club grow and um my time of mar was great the the people of Mars were fantastic um yeah it was it was absolutely fantastic if I look at it from a from a different perspective I did the same and I understand why I did it meeting people experiencing new cultures and as a person you grow so I wasn't surprised when Jonah uh went to play in France after his career for me it wasn't about leaving just because you know because of my name and this that and so forth It's just I left the country because that was an opportunity to do something different it's not purely for rugby reasons uh that you go you love the game and if we can play rugby until we 100 years old we'll keep on playing until we 100 years old but the body only has a certain amount of time and the level of rugby and the physicality of rugby has has gone a lot higher so um there comes a time then you have to say I you know I've got maybe a year two years left in my knees I want to go and experience something else and I think this is where some people will judge the different parts of his career whether his comeback was a success or a failure at the end of the day you can only judge it by what he set out to do and he set out to play rugby again and he set out to have an impact again as far as I'm concerned that's that's a [Music] success [Music] 162 162 103 yeah you right yep you right yeah actually you're not bad the problem is that I don't think we ever saw the ultimate Jonah had we seen the ultimate Jonah in other words without illness without injury to the extent that he was restricted I think you would have been talking about Jonah in the Roger federa you know um Usain Bolt um named The Great Sportsman of this world and I'm sure he would have been one of those names he's not probably seen that way particularly here in New Zealand because probably people saw the weaknesses or the ill you know the problems that he had in playing the game at times which now of course can be attributed to his illnesses I think those in Europe would rever him probably more than he's revered in New Zealand to me that is a great personal disappointment because I whenever I go overseas uh particularly in the times I was around the old blacks or Beyond it his name was worldwide I think New Zealand Rugby did itself a disservice and the game a disservice by not championing him after he finished playing the game I think he should have been someone we used as a great role model for the game and it's tragic that that didn't happen so in my eyes one of the top players that I ever saw was he the best no because I don't think we saw the best of [Music] [Music] them [Music] with sens will be able to have more more countries enter and uh and be able to compete U it becomes a a Lal playing field for a lot of teams the 15 main game is is has always going to be there but um I think the new the new future of of rugby is held in and [Applause] sens for an aort extraordin yes 81 when you're riding in your journal and you're leaving things behind for your kids uh you know what has they done cuz I'm pretty sure when the boys get a little bit older they'll get asked um what have you done dad I could turn to them and go hey you know I help rugby to get into the Olympic Games there's not many people that can say that he is arguably the most famous rugby player in the world and made his name at the world [Music] [Applause] C door for choss church my friend the most recent moment um for me that that's that I've been extremely proud of J and and to see him was to be part of the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup I think it was great for him the beginning of it for those people that did see it with um Ethan that had a number 11 shirt on and how he was fending off everybody that was a fantastic tribute to Jonah and just the emotion that was inside of me that I felt and I had the two boys with me and we watched Jonah it it was just a fantastic experience that you know it's hard to explain how I really felt but that kind of summed up and it and it showed obviously he had to be a special person to be able to be a part of [Music] that [Music] 40 how's the family man you got like uh two boys just over there you a lot yeah cler good good good young one oh that one one up the front over there he all go eh oh yeah perfect like fall over H his head get up still go uh and that's your that's your M yeah in the blue yeah I'll introduce you bro Josh hi hello na love to meet you me too and this it's brayy hello Bray come here they're pretty cool to jump off aren't they over there wow old Troublemaker mother that's lo my whole life um you know I was tested for you know um if I could have kids and uh the chances were 01 JN had always told me and explained to me you know with his medication and things like that that the chances the percentage was just very slim of of being able to have children so um it just took us by surprise so I've been blessed with two kids two boys two fantastic big beautiful boys [Music] you know what if I died tomorrow I'd be an unhappy man in some ways but also a happy man because I have two Great sons and a lovely wife and that is also why it's bittersweet for me if that happened uh it would be bitter because you know I've left them so early but in terms of leaving something behind for my kids and my wife in terms of what they can remember me of and what I've done you know I'll be handing it to them I want them to grow up and have a life not as hard as I grew up but leave for people um and say that at the end of the game um life was the winner because um your rugby career is only a short ter but your life is longer than that and uh how you live it is still in the spirit of rugby [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Applause] go