Jonah Lomu

Let me tell you a little abut my inspiration ... Jonah Lomu

In 1975 Jonah was born. He later lived with his aunt and uncle in Tonga. In 1988 Jonah started attending Wesley College and was about to embark on a remarkable life. I find it interesting that he had to move from New Zealand to Tonga. He came back to New Zealand to go to secondary school and to play rugby.

He worked his way from a little 5 year old  playing on Saturday morning all the way to the All Blacks.
The first provincial side he played for was Counties Manakau. He started as a forward because of his size and weight but then he decided to try a game in the backs as a wing because he was a good sprinter and was very powerful. This is where he stayed.
Jonah Lomu played for three super 15 teams; the Hurricanes, Chiefs and the Blues.
In 1994 Jonah joined  the All Blacks. At 19 years old he was the youngest ever to do this.
I feel inspired by Jonah Lomu because he used the skills he developed as a little five year old to play rugby and stayed playing it for all of his years. I have started as a forward and have now moved to the wing as Jonah Lomu did.

Sadly he had a kidney disease which ended his  rugby career. In early 2005 he had a kidney transplant. Later that year he returned to the field. Even a half fit Jonah was hard to stop. Jonah played his come back game in Twickenham against Wales. Jonah returned to the filed playing for North Harbour.
He had all of these new challenges thrown at him and he kept on trying to return to rugby. He really likes rugby just like me.