Rugby World Cup 2015 - Wynne Gray: For impact on game, Jonah is it

Jonah Lomu evades Scotland's Cameron Murray during the 1999 Rugby World Cup quarter-final match. Photo / Getty Images

Jonah Lomu or Julian Savea? You're going into the final selection meeting for the best All Blacks XV and have to choose between a hulking duo who terrorised opponents.

This is not about statistics. It comes down to gut feel and personal preference about two of the best who have ever worn the black No 11 jersey. It's also ignoring others like Bryan Williams, John Kirwan and Ron Jarden.

It's rugby's equivalent of separating golf's Old Tom Morris, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan or Jack Nicklaus. Time, equipment and conditions all offer circumstances which cloud the comparisons.

Lomu was in his pomp 20 years ago when he rose from a ragged start and fitness issues to scatter defenders like tumbleweed across the fields of South Africa at the 1995 World Cup.

His impact provoked Rupert Murdoch to hitch his empire to professional rugby as the game marched towards its inevitable time as a realm for fulltime athletes.

Repeat chapters of Lomu's power, agility and dominance were glorious episodes for my eyes which continued later that year with a wondrous performance in Sydney when he blitzed the Wallabies.

They had missed out on an RWC meeting and were bullish about stopping Lomu and his comrades.

The Wallabies had tactically strong defenders like Tim Horan, Jason Little, Joe Roff, Damian Smith and Matt Burke. And Lomu made a mess of them, scoring one try and setting up others with his clattering runs.

We were not to know but Lomu's kidney illness was already troubling him and when those issues became public, my admiration rose even further.

Lomu was not just a battering ram, he had tremendous balance, flypaper hands and crunched people in defence.

Since his days, the game has changed markedly and players are expected to do much more. Steve Hansen is a huge admirer of Savea and thinks his all-round game shades Lomu with his extra support work around the ruck, in all areas of defence and chasing the high ball.

Technically, that may be so and Hansen has better credentials than most to assess these things.

However, Lomu is my favourite player - not the greatest because that is a different category altogether - but this huge man with great natural power and balance rewrote the manual for wings in front of my eyes.