No role for Lomu beyond world cup

Former All Black and 2011 Rugby World Cup ambassador Jonah Lomu. Photo / Getty Images

Relations between the New Zealand Rugby Union and Jonah Lomu continue to thaw - yet there is no prospect of the world's most famous player being used in a paid capacity beyond this year's World Cup.

Lomu has been engaged by the Government to act as an ambassador during the World Cup alongside other luminaries such as Sean Fitzpatrick and David Kirk. There have been rumblings that Lomu's World Cup role may be the beginning of him coming in from the cold; that it would lead to a formal role with the national body after the tournament.

The first part appears to be true. Lomu's relationship with the NZRU is much improved from where it was six years ago. Things turned sour between Lomu and his former employer around the time he was trying to launch his comeback from his kidney transplant in 2005-06.

There was a gulf in expectations around contract values. Lomu, the highest-paid player in New Zealand for most of his career, had his views on what he was still worth. The NZRU felt he was a massive risk and were not prepared to commit money until they had some certainty of the big man's ability.

It was a difficult period for both parties - Lomu full of hope and ambition, convinced he was going to take the world by storm; the NZRU wanting to believe but unable to buy in. It was the romantic against the pragmatic and ended with Lomu heading to Wales to play for Cardiff.

The bad blood that flowed then is now history. His continued fame has in the past been a mild irritation to the national body. The NZRU are all about the now; exclusively promoting and investing in the current All Blacks. Yet Lomu has considerably more traction in various parts of the world and still excites in a way even the likes of Dan Carter and Richie McCaw don't and probably never will.

Lomu remains a hero in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. In 2009, he was introduced to the Tokyo crowd ahead of the fourth Bledisloe test. The reaction was spontaneous and genuine. As it was again in Milan a couple of weeks later when the San Siro went into raptures on sighting the big man.

He is the man who changed the landscape in 1995 - his efforts in the World Cup semifinal remain the greatest individual performance of all time. He became a household name from Inverness to Invercargill after the World Cup and was almost solely responsible for enticing Rupert Murdoch into talks about buying broadcast rights that led to the game turning professional.

There has long been debate about how Lomu's profile could be leveraged by the NZRU. Surely a role could be found? His fame and standing could open commercial doors across the world. The NZRU have never seen it that way. They fear that to pay Lomu to promote a sport he was paid handsomely to play would be to dishonour the legions of amateur legends who continue to talk at club dinners and carry out all sorts of other promotional work for free.

There is unlikely to be any change in that stance even though the NZRU say earning more money offshore is their top priority.