Peter Garelja: Lomu key in reshaping All Blacks

Jonah Lomu has been remembered around the country.

I would like to acknowledge not only the passing of Jonah Lomu, but also the contributions he made in life, to our nation.

I first came across Jonah Lomu in 1993, in my first year as principal of Kaipara College.

In those years, Kaipara College was a rugby power-house - in the following year, I remember enrolling Tony Woodcock as a Year 9 student. Anyway, back to 1993; we had won the right to represent the northern sector of the Auckland region in the national finals of the secondary school Rugby Sevens.

As soon as we arrived at the grounds, it quickly became apparent that the centre of attention and all discussion was this freakishly huge, fast and talented player in the Wesley team. His name was Jonah Lomu.

Given the association that the name "Jonah" has with whales it seemed most appropriate that his name was Jonah. In the course of the competition, we played the Wesley College team. Our strategy was to team up against Jonah Lomu, and have, at least, two players on him at any one time.

This seemed to be a winning strategy, until in the last minute, Wesley scored a winning try. The strain of placing so much attention on Jonah was that the gaps eventually came.

There were other talented rugby players in the Wesley team, who took up the opportunities that Jonah could create. After the match, I recall the humility that Jonah displayed in victory. Later, in the 1999 World Rugby Cup quarter-final, when the All Blacks, despite all pre-game predictions, were defeated by France, I saw that same grace displayed - this time, in defeat.

At the end of the match, all of the All Blacks, with one exception, left the field, without staying behind to shake hands with and congratulate the members of the victorious French team. Again, that man amongst boys was Jonah Lomu.

I sincerely believe that Jonah's role modelling of humility and good sportsmanship has been at the heart of the "better men make better players" thrust of All Blacks leadership and management. The mantle of world champions sits all the more easily on the heads of the All Blacks, because of the Jonah-like injection of humility and humanity into the culture of the All Blacks.

Genes gave Jonah his size and speed, but they also provided him with the susceptibility to serious kidney disease. Our prospects in life can be compared to a poker game - one, in which, only one hand is dealt, which is to be used in all games played thereafter.

Against any measure, it must be conceded that, in life, Jonah was dealt a very mixed hand. Yet, Jonah played his hand as if he had a fistful of aces, played his cards as he saw them and never had recourse to bluff anyone. Moreover, Jonah never complained about his hand and accepted and supported those dealt even worse hands in life than he was.