Jonah Lomu Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
44 free Jonah Lomu trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Jonah Lomu trivia quiz follows rugby's first global superstar from Pukekohe and Mangere to the 1995 World Cup semi-final where he ran over Mike Catt and made Will Carling call him 'a freak'. It covers his Tongan roots, his schoolboy athletics times, the flanker who became a wing, the record he took from Edgar Wrigley in 1994, the seven tries in South Africa, the drop-goal final at Ellis Park and the eight more tries at the 1999 tournament. The rest of the quiz is about everything around the highlights: the Blues' inaugural Super 12 title, the 1998 Commonwealth Games sevens gold, the 'match of the century' winner in 2000, the record eight tries against England, the nephrotic syndrome diagnosis, the dialysis, the 2004 transplant from a radio presenter, the comeback with North Harbour and Cardiff Blues, the McDonald's Jonah Burger, the video game, the languages he spoke and the Hall of Fame inductions. Questions range from easy to expert. Every answer was verified against the Wikipedia article on Jonah Lomu, and each explanation adds one more detail worth knowing.
30 of 44 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01As a baby, Jonah Lomu was sent to be raised by an aunt in which Pacific nation, his parents' homeland?
Tonga
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.
Q 02On his 1994 debut, Jonah Lomu took which All Blacks record that had stood for about 90 years?
Youngest debutant
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.
Q 03Jonah Lomu's displays at the 1995 World Cup are widely credited with hastening which change in rugby union?
Going professional
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.
Q 04Which opposing player did Jonah Lomu famously run straight over for his first try in the 1995 semi-final?
Mike Catt
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.
Q 05Which opposing captain said of Jonah Lomu in 1995: 'He is a freak and the sooner he goes away the better'?
Will Carling
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.
Q 06How did South Africa settle the 1995 World Cup final against Jonah Lomu's All Blacks?
An extra-time drop goal
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.
Q 07Which wing equalled Jonah Lomu's record of 15 Rugby World Cup tries at the 2015 tournament?
Bryan Habana
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.
Q 08From 2011, Jonah Lomu served as a New Zealand ambassador for which children's charity?
Unicef
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.
Q 09Which rare kidney disorder cut short Jonah Lomu's All Blacks career?
Nephrotic syndrome
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.
Q 10Who donated the kidney that Jonah Lomu received in a July 2004 transplant?
Radio presenter Grant Kereama
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.
Q 11Jonah Lomu began his comeback from a kidney transplant in a 2005 Twickenham testimonial for which England World Cup winner?
Martin Johnson
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.
Q 12Which Auckland school did Jonah Lomu's mother send him to after gang violence in Mangere?
Wesley College
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.
Q 13In which part of the team did a schoolboy Jonah Lomu play before he moved out to the wing?
Back row
Q 21A world-record rugby crowd of 109,874 saw Jonah Lomu's late winning try against Australia in 2000 in which city?
Sydney
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.
Q 22In 1996 Jonah Lomu scored as New Zealand beat Australia 43-6 in the first match of which new tournament?
The Tri Nations
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.
Q 23Against which northern-hemisphere nation did Jonah Lomu score eight test tries, his most?
England
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.
Q 14Which sevens star played touch with a 14-year-old Jonah Lomu and invited him to a Singapore tournament?
Eric Rush
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.
Q 15Which sport did Jonah Lomu play first as a youngster?
Rugby league
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.
Q 16Which tournament first brought Jonah Lomu to international attention in 1994?
The Hong Kong Sevens
The Hong Kong Sevens of 1994 made his name at 18. By June he was in the All Blacks' Test side.
Q 17With which Super 12 team did Jonah Lomu win the competition's inaugural final in 1996?
Auckland Blues
Auckland Blues beat Natal in that final and Lomu scored in it, in a year when injuries otherwise held him back.
Q 18Jonah Lomu won rugby sevens gold in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 at which multi-sport event?
The Commonwealth Games
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.
Q 19Before his eight-try 1999 World Cup, how did the All Blacks use Jonah Lomu in that year's earlier Tests?
Off the bench
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.
Q 20Which team beat New Zealand 43-31 in the 1999 World Cup semi-final despite two Lomu tries?
France
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.
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.
Q 24Which two major test nations did Jonah Lomu never score a try against?
South Africa and Wales
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.
Q 25Jonah Lomu played his last All Blacks tests in November 2002 against which three teams?
England, France and Wales
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.
Q 26Which Welsh club did Jonah Lomu join for his 2005-06 comeback after his transplant?
Cardiff Blues
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.
Q 27Which New Zealand provincial side signed Jonah Lomu to a two-year deal in April 2005?
North Harbour
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.
Q 28Which NRL club offered Jonah Lomu a contract that he turned down because of his union sponsorships?
Gold Coast Titans
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.
Q 29In September 2009, Jonah Lomu finished second in two categories of what kind of amateur contest?
Bodybuilding
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.
Q 30What did McDonald's New Zealand do in 1996 to honour Lomu?
Rebranded the McFeast as the 'Jonah Burger'
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.