Jonah - My Story: Revised Edition by Jonah Lomu

Author:Jonah Lomu [Lomu, Jonah]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781869713126
Publisher: Hachette New Zealand
Published: 2012-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

Mourning Glory, Courting Gold

Following the All Blacks end-of-year tour in 1997, Phil and I had always planned to stay in Britain for a couple of weeks to do a bit of promotional work. Over the next few years it became something of a routine. At the end of our domestic season, or if there was a Northern Hemisphere tour by the All Blacks at the end of the year, we’d always put away some time for personal appearances. One rule, though, was we always had to be back in New Zealand for Christmas.

In 1997, even though I was getting used to being in the limelight back home, I was still pretty new to the kind of showbiz stuff the Brits were looking for. I didn’t know what to expect when I fronted up for the British TV programme They Think It’s All Over. It was a half-hour sports show which used to screen at about 10 p.m. on Friday nights. I’d heard it was a bit off the wall — similar to New Zealand’s Game of Two Halves. I was invited on as the ‘Feel the Sportsman’ guest where a couple of members of the panel, who are blindfolded, have to try and work out who the mystery guest is — by touch.

Before I got on stage, the panel — which this night included cricketer David Gower, comedian Lee Hurst, boxer Chris Eubank and host Nick Hancock — were discussing who the mystery guest might be. At one point it was suggested it might be a rugby player. Lee Hurst really got the audience going when he said the All Blacks were poofters and that Jonah Lomu himself was just a big poofter. I was behind a screen chucking a ball in the air, and when I was finally brought out, Lee and David Gower were given the job of guessing who I was. Lee was going, ‘No, it can’t be. It can’t be.’ When he lifted his blindfold and saw me, he was off into the audience. The place cracked up. It was great fun.

I also did Question of Sport for the first time in 1997. Since then I’ve been back two or three times to do the show, despite the fact I really battled the first time around. I’m not really a cricket or a soccer fan. Most of the sports I watch are American — baseball, basketball and football. Anyway, I’ve always had a ball on the show and the producers seem to like having me back. They even invited me to do the big Christmas special a couple of times so I guess I must have been doing something right.

Phil Kingsley Jones: Jonah has come a long way since I took him to his first speaking engagement back in 1996. It was in Bulls, of all places. I took Jonah, Gary Whetton and Dallas Seymour down to the little town for a mate of mine who ran the local pub, the Rangitikei Tavern. I did my

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