Dan Carter and Richie McCaw have both opened up about the toughest players they respectively faced in their illustrious playing careers.
The pair of All Blacks legends have now both hung up their boots so they can speak a little more openly than they may have during their long and successful careers.
Carter hooked up with his former captain McCaw for the first of a two-part interview.
Topics range from McCaw’s bagpipe skills to his unique pre-match ritual. The former skipper’s relentless attention to detail and goal-setting was the stuff of legend.
Carter and McCaw: Toughest opponents
#5. Jonah Lomu (New Zealand)
- Position Winger
- Height 6 ft 5 in
- Weight 262 lb
- Caps 63
Carter said: “He bowled me over about 5m when I tried to tackle him in one of my first games. A superstar. Gutted I never played with him.”
McCaw said: “When I first became an All Black he was in the team. To play alongside a guy you have watched as a young fella was pretty amazing. He made me look silly in training more than once”
Jonah Lomu facts:
- Playing on the wing Lomu finished his international career with 63 caps and 37 tries
- He became the youngest ever All Black when he played his first international in 1994 at the age of 19 years and 45 days
- Lomu was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame on 9 October 2007, and the IRB Hall of Fame on 24 October 2011
- In 1996, McDonald’s New Zealand named a burger after Lomu, temporarily rebranding the McFeast burger line (called “Mega Feast” in New Zealand) as the “Jonah Burger”
- On 9 April 2007, Lomu appeared on New Zealand’s version of This Is Your Life, in which he was reunited with long time friend Grant Kereama, who had donated a kidney to Lomu when he underwent a kidney transplant in July 2004
- Lomu lent his name to various video games including Jonah Lomu Rugby