44 Fun Facts About Jonah Lomu

As a baby, Jonah Lomu was sent to be raised by an aunt in which Pacific nation, his parents' homeland?

Tonga was home for his first years, in the care of an aunt. Back in South Auckland he clashed with his strict father, and the two ended up estranged.

On his 1994 debut, Jonah Lomu took which All Blacks record that had stood for about 90 years?

Youngest debutant: he was 19 years and 45 days old, and the All Blacks lost. A year later he went to the World Cup as a wildcard pick with only two caps.

Jonah Lomu's displays at the 1995 World Cup are widely credited with hastening which change in rugby union?

Going professional: his four-try semi-final is widely credited with drawing the commercial deals that let an amateur sport start paying its players, and he became its first global star.

Which opposing player did Jonah Lomu famously run straight over for his first try in the 1995 semi-final?

Mike Catt was the last defender: Lomu, knocked off balance by a tap tackle ten yards out, regained his feet and ran over the top of him. It was the first of his four tries in a 45-29 win.

Which opposing captain said of Jonah Lomu in 1995: 'He is a freak and the sooner he goes away the better'?

Will Carling said it after the game in which Lomu scored four tries past his side, the first of them after Carling's own tap tackle failed to bring him down.

How did South Africa settle the 1995 World Cup final against Jonah Lomu's All Blacks?

An extra-time drop goal from Joel Stransky made it 15-12 in the first final to need the extra period. Stransky kicked every Springbok point, and neither side scored a try.

Which wing equalled Jonah Lomu's record of 15 Rugby World Cup tries at the 2015 tournament?

Bryan Habana drew level, then wasted four clear chances to take the record outright in the third-place play-off. Lomu had set his mark in only two tournaments, 1995 and 1999.

From 2011, Jonah Lomu served as a New Zealand ambassador for which children's charity?

Unicef New Zealand signed him up in 2011. He was also patron of Kidney Kids, a charity for children with the kind of illness that ended his own career.

Which rare kidney disorder cut short Jonah Lomu's All Blacks career?

Nephrotic syndrome had him on dialysis three times a week by 2003. A transplant in 2004 let him play again, but the new kidney failed in 2011 and he went back on dialysis for good.

Who donated the kidney that Jonah Lomu received in a July 2004 transplant?

Radio presenter Grant Kereama was a long-time friend. When the pair were reunited on New Zealand's This Is Your Life in 2007, Lomu told him he could never repay him.

Jonah Lomu began his comeback from a kidney transplant in a 2005 Twickenham testimonial for which England World Cup winner?

Martin Johnson's XV beat Lomu's XV 33-29 in front of 42,100. Lomu scored in the left corner but hurt his shoulder doing it, did not come out for the second half and later needed surgery.

Which Auckland school did Jonah Lomu's mother send him to after gang violence in Mangere?

Wesley College is a Methodist boarding school, and it was her answer after an uncle and then a cousin of his were killed. "Pack your bags, boy," she told him.

In which part of the team did a schoolboy Jonah Lomu play before he moved out to the wing?

Back row: he was a No 8 for New Zealand Schools before his speed took him to the wing. The All Blacks still sometimes pulled Zinzan Brooke off an attacking scrum and put Lomu at its base.

Which sevens star played touch with a 14-year-old Jonah Lomu and invited him to a Singapore tournament?

Eric Rush told him the team left the next day, and he went, a schoolboy among grown men. In 2001 he repaid the favour with three tries in the final of the sevens World Cup.

Which sport did Jonah Lomu play first as a youngster?

Rugby league was his game until he was 14. At his first union tournament, in Te Kuiti, the clubroom talked of the great 'Pinetree' Meads and he had to ask who that was.

Which tournament first brought Jonah Lomu to international attention in 1994?

The Hong Kong Sevens of 1994 made his name at 18. By June he was in the All Blacks' Test side.

With which Super 12 team did Jonah Lomu win the competition's inaugural final in 1996?

Auckland Blues beat Natal in that final and Lomu scored in it, in a year when injuries otherwise held him back.

Jonah Lomu won rugby sevens gold in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 at which multi-sport event?

The Commonwealth Games had never staged sevens before Kuala Lumpur, so New Zealand's gold was the sport's first there. Lomu was a year back from kidney illness and still well short of his 1995 form.

Before his eight-try 1999 World Cup, how did the All Blacks use Jonah Lomu in that year's earlier Tests?

Off the bench every time: he started none of his five Tests before the tournament. He then started six World Cup games and scored eight tries, two of them in the semi-final.

Which team beat New Zealand 43-31 in the 1999 World Cup semi-final despite two Lomu tries?

France trailed 24-10 after Lomu's second try, then scored 33 of the last 40 points. Christophe Lamaison did not miss a kick all afternoon, and it still ranks among the World Cup's great upsets.

A world-record rugby crowd of 109,874 saw Jonah Lomu's late winning try against Australia in 2000 in which city?

Sydney's Stadium Australia saw New Zealand lead 24-0 inside ten minutes and Australia draw level at 24-all by half-time. Lomu's try two minutes from the end won it 39-35.

In 1996 Jonah Lomu scored as New Zealand beat Australia 43-6 in the first match of which new tournament?

The Tri Nations began in Wellington's wind and rain, and the All Blacks ran in six tries as if the ball were dry. It is still talked of as the perfect wet-weather performance.

Against which northern-hemisphere nation did Jonah Lomu score eight test tries, his most?

England conceded eight tries to him in seven Tests, four of them in one afternoon at the 1995 World Cup. Scotland, with seven, came next.

Which two major test nations did Jonah Lomu never score a try against?

South Africa and Wales: he faced the Springboks 12 times, the 1995 World Cup final among them, and Wales three times without scoring against either.

Jonah Lomu played his last All Blacks tests in November 2002 against which three teams?

England, France and Wales: he scored twice at Twickenham in a 31-28 defeat, drew 20-20 in Paris and signed off with a 43-17 win in Cardiff. Within a year he was on kidney dialysis.

Which Welsh club did Jonah Lomu join for his 2005-06 comeback after his transplant?

Cardiff Blues filled the Arms Park when he played, and he scored against Newport Gwent Dragons. He had managed ten games when a broken ankle ended the stay in April 2006.

Which New Zealand provincial side signed Jonah Lomu to a two-year deal in April 2005?

North Harbour had to wait: he hurt a shoulder scoring in a testimonial at Twickenham that June, and the surgery that followed cost him the whole season.

Which NRL club offered Jonah Lomu a contract that he turned down because of his union sponsorships?

Gold Coast Titans, newcomers to the NRL, offered one year after he failed to land a Super 14 contract. He spent that week in Europe asking his sponsors to back a switch of codes, then said no.

In September 2009, Jonah Lomu finished second in two categories of what kind of amateur contest?

Bodybuilding began, he said, as a way to get back in shape, five years after his kidney transplant. The two second places came on his competitive debut, in Wellington.

What did McDonald's New Zealand do in 1996 to honour Lomu?

Rebranded the McFeast, sold in New Zealand as the Mega Feast, as the Jonah Burger, barely two years into his Test career. It was one sign of how a single World Cup had turned a rugby player into a global brand.

Which BBC award did Jonah Lomu receive in December 1995 after his World Cup displays?

Overseas Sports Personality of the Year went to a 20-year-old of few words. One reviewer wrote that he was certainly from overseas, but that his personality was still at the prototype stage.

Former Samoa forward Zak Fe'aunati made his acting debut as Jonah Lomu in which 2009 film about the 1995 World Cup?

Invictus gave the part to the head of rugby at an English grammar school, a former Bath No 8 who had never acted. Clint Eastwood directed, with Matt Damon as the Springbok captain Francois Pienaar.

Where did Jonah Lomu marry his second wife Fiona in a secret ceremony in August 2003?

He was married three times; his first wife, South African Tanya Rutter, was never accepted by his family.

Flying home from the 2015 World Cup, Jonah Lomu took a family holiday in which city hours before he died?

Dubai was a family stopover after his promotional work at the tournament. He died at home in Auckland on 18 November 2015, aged 40, within hours of landing.

At which stadium was a public memorial service for Jonah Lomu held twelve days after his death in 2015?

Eden Park was chosen as the spiritual home of rugby, in family spokesman John Hart's words, and thousands came. His casket was carried onto the field, and former All Blacks performed a last haka.

What did the New Zealand Rugby Players' Association set up a month after Lomu's death to support his sons?

A legacy trust in his name was needed because he died with almost nothing. The players' union said twenty years of illness and dialysis had cut his earnings, and that he had taken on other people's obligations.

Which honour did Jonah Lomu receive in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours?

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit is the fifth of the order's five grades, given for services to rugby. A knighthood was not on offer to anyone: New Zealand had dropped the titles in 2000 and restored them only in 2009.

The 1997 cult classic Jonah Lomu Rugby was released for which games console?

PlayStation owners still quote its commentary from Bill McLaren and Bill Beaumont. One tackle could have put a man in Ward 4, says one; the other hopes not, because that's a maternity ward.

Jonah Lomu made his provincial debut in 1994 for which union, his home side until 1999?

Counties Manukau had given him only four first-class games when the All Blacks picked him in 1994. After two defeats by the touring French he was sent back to the province to learn the wing's trade.

From 2000 Jonah Lomu played his last Super 12 seasons alongside Tana Umaga at which side?

Hurricanes team-mates included a young Ma'a Nonu, whom Lomu used to drive to training in Wellington. He played 29 games for them before illness cut short his 2003 season.

Which French third-division club did Jonah Lomu join for a comeback in November 2009?

Marseille Vitrolles drew a record crowd of 2,500 and a live cable broadcast for his debut. He did not score, and admitted that his lack of French had made it hard to contribute.

Jonah Lomu's first wife, Tanya Rutter, whom he married in 1996, was from which country?

South Africa hosted a second ceremony to make it up to his family: neither set of parents had been invited to the 1996 wedding beside Manukau Harbour. The couple divorced in 2000.

Jonah Lomu was baptised into which church in 2012?

Latter-day Saints missionaries, he said, had answered questions he had been asking for years. He was baptised in Wellington and spoke with his wife at church gatherings in Mangere.

On what legal ground did Jonah Lomu's widow try to halt the documentary Lomu, which finally premiered in 2026?

Trademark rights were what her cease-and-desist letter claimed, but a 2024 ruling left control of his name and image with his estate's executor. The film, backed by an $800,000 Film Commission grant, opened in Auckland.