All Blacks have Jonah Lomu's destruction of England to thank
All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick claims to have never seen it, Sam Cane says he’s only seen highlights, but it is highly unlikely they would be the highly paid sportsmen they are had Jonah Lomu not set alight the 1995 World Cup semifinals.
In the only previous knockout stage match between New Zealand and England before Saturday’s clash in Yokohama, Lomu rampaged his way to four tries in the All Blacks 45-29 victory in the semifinal in Cape Town.
The 80 minutes of carnage at Newlands was not only monumental in terms of Lomu’s performance as he electrified the rugby world but it ultimately shaped the future direction of the sport.
The performance of the 1.96m-tall, 119kg Lomu, who could run the 100m in under 11 seconds, attracted the interest of media companies who were engaged in a pitched battle for the broadcast rights for sports events to drive pay-television subscriptions.
Popular legend has it that media mogul Rupert Murdoch, watching Lomu run over the top of England fullback Mike Catt, turned to one of his lieutenants and proclaimed “get me that man”, knowing that if they signed the giant winger, they had the marketable athlete they needed to sell the game.
The “Rugby War”, as former Wallabies lock and journalist Peter FitzSimons described it, forced rugby’s administrators to recognise the ethos of amateurism they had adhered to since the split with rugby league in 1893 was no longer relevant.
Rugby was declared open and South Africa, Australia and New Zealand created Super Rugby and the Tri-Nations, the precursor to the Rugby Championship, on the back of Murdoch’s News Corp playing $US555 million for the rights for 10 years to matches between the southern hemisphere’s three major rugby powers.
Lomu became rugby’s first truly global personality and he garnered endorsement deals with numerous international brands, ranging from sportswear to fast food restaurants.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3y8m8YgIjm/
It was a far cry from just eight years earlier when World Cup-winning winger Craig Green walked away from the All Blacks straight after they won the 1987 tournament because he could not afford to take more time off work as a building contractor.
“If you weren’t there (at work), you didn’t get paid,” Green told New Zealand’s Stuff Media earlier this year.
“You couldn’t pay the rent to stay in the flat, yet you were running around representing your country. It sort of got to the stage where I thought, ‘Oh well, I might be better moving on’.”
Most top-tier rugby players now earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, while some of the leading teams in Japan are in line for hefty performance bonuses.
Did the All Blacks set Ireland up to fail with a con-job in Dublin last year? @bensmithrugby looks at how Hansen's side demolished the Irish in the World Cup quarter-final. #NZLvIRE #RWC2019 https://t.co/cc42CDGMp5
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 23, 2019
The rematch of the 1995 semifinal, however, will be missing one key observer – Lomu.
He died from complications of kidney disease in late 2015 aged 40, the day after he had returned from promotional work at the last World Cup in England.
Sadly, Lomu, who was reported in his playing prime as being a multi-millionaire, faced limited earning potential afterwards because of the disease and was unable to fully capitalise on the seeds he helped sow for the next generation of players.
He died effectively broke.
Jonah Lomu may have trampled over Mike Catt in the 1995 World Cup, but he scored a number of other memorable tries too, including this ripper against the Wallabies:
Comments on RugbyPass
Good to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
17 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
17 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
7 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
7 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
17 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
17 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
7 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
17 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
17 Go to comments