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Happy almost weekend, good people.

The sight of live rugby on our screens once again is cause for celebration, even if it’s just the New Zealand teams competing in the revamped Super Rugby Aotearoa, but there will never again be a player quite like Jonah Lomu.

If you fancy a throwback that will probably remind you of your advancing years, today marks a full 25 years since Lomu almost singlehandedly destroyed the English at Newlands.

The winger dotted down four times, but it’s his demolition of English fullback Mike Catt that remains perhaps his most iconic try of all time.

Why sidestep when you can run straight over?

At least Catt knows that Owen Farrell can empathise, although it was the twinkle toes of Cheslin Kolbe, rather than his strength, that humiliated England’s 2019 World Cup captain.

Back to Newlands and the 1995 World Cup semi-final, though, and the Telegraph match report. Some cracking passages here:

It was a hair-raising marvel of a performance from this 6ft 5in giant of a man, blessed with a strength and physical presence way beyond his 20 years. From the kick-off at a full house Newlands it was: “Good afternoon, Tony Underwood. Here I am to make your life a misery for the next 79 minutes 50 seconds.”

…But it was not just the youngest Underwood who had a recurring nightmare in attempting to stop 18st 8lb Lomu, a runaway potting shed in boots. Will Carling, Mike Catt, Tim Rodber, Dewi Morris and Dean Richards discovered that the genuine, well-timed tackle was not sufficient to do more than momentarily slow an athletic mountain.

I remember exactly where I was when Lomu destroyed England, and a World Cup winner’s medal would have been well deserved.

Of course, thanks to some defensive heroics from the Springboks, and the single greatest drop goal of all time (nah, Jonny Wilkinson, not even close), that was not to be.

While you’re here, you may as well enjoy Lomu’s 15 World Cup tries, scored in just 11 matches spread across the 1995 and 1999 editions.

Lomu was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2007, and the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2011.

He passed away in 2015, at the age of 40, after a long battle with nephrotic syndrome, a serious kidney disorder, and scored 37 tries in his 63 All Black test appearances.

One more video? In honour of the big man, why not?

Whilst Lomu was a relative unknown when he arrived in South Africa in 1995, he had appeared for his country before.

In fact, on his test debut in June 1994, he ran riot against the French, although in an age before social media, few had seen the highlights of that match in the build-up to the tournament.

Rest in peace, big man.

[source:telegraph]