AD200810446856170AR
AD200810446856170AR
AD200810446856170AR
AD200810446856170AR

The lionhearted Lomu


Paul Radley
  • English
  • Arabic

Who do you think is sport?s all-time best? Each week, we will profile a candidate, inviting you to decide who should top our list of 50. All participants will be entered into a draw for the weekly adidas prize and an end-of-contest Etihad Holidays four-day trip for two, including business class flights and accommodation, to a mystery location. We will reveal the full 50 at the end, but this week Paul Radley looks at rugby union's Jonah Lomu.

Floating near the top of the library of tribute videos to Jonah Lomu on YouTube is one that is far more telling than any of the compilations of chilling hits or breathtaking tries. In it, Lomu recounts the moment when he was first told he had nephrotic syndrome, a debilitating condition which causes the kidneys to seep large amounts of protein from the blood into the urine. "When I sat down with one of the top kidney specialists, and he turned and said to me, 'You are facing life in a wheelchair,' that was difficult to accept," recalls Lomu.

"If anything, I didn't accept it. I found a power within. In the space of three years, I got out there and played rugby when I shouldn't have. I had to fight for every step to get there." Lomu was already established as "the first global rugby icon" - to borrow a description from another great, the former England captain Martin Johnson - when his story really began. Above rewriting the way the game is played and providing the platform for the move to big money professionalism, Lomu's greatest triumph was his recovery from his kidney disorder to play Test rugby again.

If the battle against the odds is the simplest form of sporting narrative, then Lomu's life provides classic fare. He was brought up by Tongan immigrant parents, Semisi and Hepi Lomu, in Mangere East, one of the toughest suburbs of south Auckland. His devout mother did his best to shield him from strife. As a child, Lomu spent five years back with his extended family in Tonga, while, in his teenage years, Hepi sent him off to the strictly Methodist Wesley College, far enough away from the badlands to give him a start.

Trouble did not ignore Lomu entirely. He was often dragged in to the gang fighting between the rival Polynesians of Mangere East. Horrifically, when he was just 12, his uncle and cousin were murdered in neighbouring Otara. Yet rugby proved his salvation. At 19, the 6ft 5in winger, who had clocked a 100m best of 10.98 seconds, became the youngest ever All Black. By the time of the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, Lomu had become one of the biggest names in all of sport. It was no mean feat, given that his sport was still officially amateur and only really played in the colonies.

He became the perfect embodiment of indestructible youth. Nothing could stop him: not eight French defenders in a World Cup semi-final; not a desperate Stephen Larkham in the final seconds of the greatest Tri-Nations match; not a Mike Catt-shaped road-hump. So sparkling had Lomu's star become, the media magnate Rupert Murdoch had to have him. "He just wanted Jonah on his television screen," revealed one Sky source at the time.

It cost Murdoch a cool £260 million (Dh1.5billion) for the privilege, and southern hemisphere rugby - indeed the game as a whole - changed completely on the back of Lomu's celebrity. Suddenly there was a market for a Tri-Nations tournament, and the first official edition took place in 1996, with Lomu-mania at its height. In keeping with all the best modern sporting icons - Tiger Woods's agent Mark Steinberg defines them, rather soullessly, as "genuine brands" - Lomu's fame transcends rugby.

The game's connoisseurs will claim he could not defend, that he was not as fast as Christian Cullen, or that could not handle the ball like Carlos Spencer. But the All Black jersey is known in rugby outposts like Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok because it was worn by Lomu. He revolutionised the game to such an extent that a glossary of new entries emerged in rugby's lexicon, such as: Freak - Will Carling used it most famously following Lomu's four-try wonder-show against England in the 1995 World Cup semi-final. In truth, it had already been used ad nauseum by beaten opponents in the sevens game, where Lomu initially cut his teeth.

Carling later wrote: "The physical impact that Lomu had on the 1995 World Cup was beyond the effect of any other player in the history of the game. He was so quick, so powerful, so strong that he changed rugby." Thing on the wing - Now used for anyone of a different physique to the prototypical willowy runners who play on the flanks. Elephant gun - As in, "you might stop him with an elephant gun," which was the claim made by the England hooker Brian Moore after the 1995 capitulation.

@Email:pradley@thenational.ae Cast your vote and enter a draw for a weekly Dh500 adidas voucher and a dream trip with Etihad Holidays. If you think Conacher is the all-time best, text G28 to 2337 Texts cost Dh5 and voting will end at midnight on Thursday October 30.

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Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

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The Bio

Favourite Emirati dish: I have so many because it has a lot of herbs and vegetables. Harees  (oats with chicken) is one of them

Favourite place to go to: Dubai Mall because it has lots of sports shops.

Her motivation: My performance because I know that whatever I do, if I put the effort in, I’ll get results

During her free time: I like to drink coffee - a latte no sugar and no flavours. I do not like cold drinks

Pet peeve: That with every meal they give you a fries and Pepsi. That is so unhealthy

Advice to anyone who wants to be an ironman: Go for the goal. If you are consistent, you will get there. With the first one, it might not be what they want but they should start and just do it

2019 Asian Cup final

Japan v Qatar
Friday, 6pm
Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Gulf Under 19s final

Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B

The biog

Favourite colour: Brown

Favourite Movie: Resident Evil

Hobbies: Painting, Cooking, Imitating Voices

Favourite food: Pizza

Trivia: Was the voice of three characters in the Emirati animation, Shaabiyat Al Cartoon

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Country-size land deals

US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:

Louisiana Purchase

If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.

Florida Purchase Treaty

The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty. 

Alaska purchase

America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of  Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".

The Philippines

At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million. 

US Virgin Islands

It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.

Gwadar

The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees. 

World Test Championship table

1 India 71 per cent

2 New Zealand 70 per cent

3 Australia 69.2 per cent

4 England 64.1 per cent

5 Pakistan 43.3 per cent

6 West Indies 33.3 per cent

7 South Africa 30 per cent

8 Sri Lanka 16.7 per cent

9 Bangladesh 0

The nine articles of the 50-Year Charter

1. Dubai silk road

2.  A geo-economic map for Dubai

3. First virtual commercial city

4. A central education file for every citizen

5. A doctor to every citizen

6. Free economic and creative zones in universities

7. Self-sufficiency in Dubai homes

8. Co-operative companies in various sectors

­9: Annual growth in philanthropy

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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On sale: Now
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Mina Cup winners

Under 12 – Minerva Academy

Under 14 – Unam Pumas

Under 16 – Fursan Hispania

Under 18 – Madenat

Innotech Profile

Date started: 2013

Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari

Based: Muscat, Oman

Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies

Size: 15 full-time employees

Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing 

Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now. 

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