'He was just jogging beside me, smiling, as he caught me'

Jonah Lomu died ten years ago today. He had a heart attack from a complication relating to his chronic kidney disease. His arrival as a rugby star was jaw dropping — unforgettable.

Speakola likes to salute words, but this Irish Examiner front page deserves a nod of appreciation. Lomu was just 40.

He was electrifying, right from the start. I’ll never forget him just running over the top of international athletes like they were school kids at lunchtime. His four tries versus England at the 1995 World Cup will brighten your day, possibly even if you’re English. He’s gliding, at 120 plus kilograms!

I remember watching this Eric Rush eulogy below and thinking it was such a funny and loving tribute.

He included some markers that are often there in good eulogies:

The how we met story -

And so I saw this big fella marking me, and I had a go at him, on the outside a couple of times, and he was just jogging beside me, smiling, as he caught me. And I thought, far out, this guy’s not bad, alright!’

I went up to him after the game. I said, ‘mate you played pretty good touch, have you ever played Sevens?’

He said, ‘Na.’

I said, ‘we got a bit of a Sevens team, are you keen to have a crack?’

‘Yep.’

I said, ‘Mate, we’re off to Singapore in a few weeks, you wanna come?’

‘Sweet’

That was pretty much the extent of his vocabulary back then ... so

Snatches of dialogue -

It’s amazing how a retold conversation brings immediacy and intimacy to storytelling. Direct speech also captures character and personality, and the audience feels like they’re getting a peak behind the curtain. So much of storytelling is about recreating moments, and dialogue naturally pushes the speaker towards a moment in time.

What did they love that wasn’t work or family? -

A person’s occupation and family will usually find their way into a eulogy, but sometimes it’s the quirky passion or hobby off to the side that makes a speech memorable and gets to the essence of the person. In this one, Eric Rush touches on Lomu’s love of hotted up cars. You get the sense that Rush is just a a natural at this. Not many people would include Arnie, but Rush does and it feels like the story is just pouring out of him, almost without filter:

And his best mate at the time was this little Asian fella called Arnie. He was his best mate. Arnie used to soup up the cars, and Jonah put the sounds in them.

And that big green truck of his. Man, far out! He’d come and pick you up and you gotta drive along, like this, with your fingers in your ears. And your shirt going like this. And he’s nodding away ... hell, I hated going for rides with that fella!

A peak behind the curtain -

For a public funeral like this one, it’s great when you get a story from the locker room, or the green room, or backstage or the home front, or wherever it is that the wider audience wishes they could have sneaked a peak into the celebrity’s world. Rush is just so naturally funny, and his willingness to be honest about the initial antipathy between Lomu and his coach, Laure Mains, is golden.

And when Laurie [Mains] became the All Black coach, and selected Jonah at the start -- those two never got on very well at all. Because Jonah didn’t know how to talk to this southern man, this Waitangi type from down on the South Island, and Laurie Mains didn’t know how to talk to a young Islands boy from the south side.

So I kinda became the go-between. Between the two of them for many of their conversations. So Laurie would tell me what he wanted to know, I go and ask Jonah to get the answer, go back, tell Laurie.

And for some reason, at All Blacks, Laurie wouldn’t let us eat eggs. And one morning, it was before one of the trials before the 95 World Cup, the coaches all went to the gym. So we’re in the breakfast room, and the boys are just going for it, man, we’re eating anything we like. And Jonah had this French stick, this baguette, and he had sixteen boiled eggs in it. And he was eating it like this [demonstrates] and somebody was taking photos of him. And anyway, Laurie Mains come walking back into the breakfast room, and he went through the roof.

He comes over to me, and he says, ‘what the bloody hell is he eating now!’

And I’m just having my Weet-Bix man, I’m just trying to stay in the team, you know. He says, ‘you bloody well get over there and tell him to think about what he’s eating.’

So I went over to Jonah, I says, ‘mate, Laurie’s a bit angry about what you’re eating.’

He says to me, ‘you go tell him to go get f***cked’

I’m looking back at Laurie. He’s waiting for the answer.

I walk back over.

‘Oh, he says he’s just about finished.’

Doing the love stuff well -

If it is a loving eulogy, it pays to still try to be creative as you express what the person meant to you, or what family meant to the deceased. Eric Rush seems to be able to effortless draw interesting and arresting little phrases out of himself, and he’s great on the love stuff.

[wife] But Nadene, I just want you to know, I’ve been around the fella a long time, and it’s the happiest I’ve seen him. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen that fella. So I know he’s gone, but I know he’ll be looking down over you and the boys, and all the mates and family will be there to help as well. You are not alone.

[mum] Jonah feared no man. But he did fear one person and that was his mum, Hepi. ‘Cause he was … the jandal, (flip flop or rubber thong) I think he was still scarred from the jandal, Hepi! But when his mum said things, he acted. He didn’t listen to anybody else but his mum….

[Eric himself] He’s going to be remembered as a colossus on the football field, no doubt about that. But I‘m going to remember him as a good mate. And most importantly, as a loving dad.

A story that reveals character -

Eric Rush started the eulogy by saying that the young Jonah Lomu found joy in playing rugby, and played with an effortless freedom. At the end of the eulogy, he passes on a story that reveals how Lomu stayed true to himself, and the game:

When the Dallas Cowboys came knocking, and it was a big contract, he showed me that contract, it was a lot of money, and he turned it down.

I said, ‘why’d you turn it down?’, and he said, ‘oh, it’s only money. It’s not everything.’

I said, ‘money’s not everything , but it’s right up there with oxygen, bro, you do need it, you know? And that’s a lot of oxygen, brother. That’s a lot of oxygen.’

All he said to me was, ‘I just want to play rugby with my mates, and I want to play in that black jersey for as long as I can. And that’s the reason he stayed with football.

It’s a magnificent speech for one of the world’s greatest athletes, taken far too soon. I recommend listening to it in full. I’ll post the transcript below.

If you know Eric Rush, he’d be a perfect podcast guest for me! Put us in touch!

I am currently editing the next podcast episode featuring Steve Kilbey from The Church. It’ll hopefully be out by Friday.

To paid subscribers, donors, and Patreons, thanks for all you do to keep Speakola afloat.

Best wishes

Tony Wilson

For Jonah Lomu: ‘I want to thank the Lomus for sharing your son, not just with New Zealand but with the whole world’, by Eric Rush - 2015

30 November 2015, Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand

It’s a great honour to be up here today to speak on behalf of Jonah’s rugby mates. And there’s a lot of us here today.

Whenever me and big fella got together, we used to take the mickey out of each other. And that’s not going to change today, so, I’m gonna tell a few stories about the big fella, and I hope he doesn’t sit up.