Tom is a belligerent Australian bloke and he sent me an e-mail with info on Jonah Lomu a while ago. This is his story.
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G’day Justin,
Seeing as though you’ve had rugby players on the blog twice now, I figured I might add another suggestion.
The subject of the post today is Jonah Lomu. He played for the All-Blacks from 1994 to 2002 and in that time managed to change the face of Rugby Union. He came to prominence in the 1995 World Cup where over five matches he managed to score seven tries, including 4 against England. He became the sports first superstar and in the time that he played was the most fearsome player on the field. He generally played as a Winger (a position reserved for the fastest, most agile players) and did this at 6’5 and 275lbs. This is the equivalent of a linebacker playing as a running back. He scored more tries in the World Cup than any other player and did I mention he did all this after being diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome in 1995? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrotic_syndrome).
Here’s a few clips you might enjoy. Some are big hits, some are incredible runs/footwork and then there’s a few Maori Sidesteps (which involves pretty much running straight over a bloke haha).
Jonah could stop players:
But players couldn’t stop Jonah:
A particularly big tackle, Jonah looks like he’s pouncing on prey in this clip.
I see Jonah as being 70s big for a number of reasons. Firstly, the bloke was 6’5 and 275lbs… This is not little. He carried this bulk and strength while remaining fast and conditioned as hell. He dominated in his chosen sport and endured through a debilitating illness. Big, strong, bad, and tough. 70’s Big.
Jonah Lomu is a fucking beast.
Anyone else think the same thing I thought when raeding the name Jonah?
“Teachers at this school are so racist. If anything goes wrong, if something goes missing they go ‘Jonah must have fuckin’ done some shit'”. “Fuck you sir I don’t want to go back to Tonga. Tonga is shit.”
Hes fast
Maslow.
No. I thought of Lomu.
When a man says Jonah, they either mean Jonah Lomu or they are a man who is not a man.
However, that show was 1/3 good.
It should be added that Jonah Lomu is one of the most humble and well loved sportsmen around.
Definitely embodies the 70’s big spirit.
I just found my new hero.
Also.
Sebastian Chebal is most definitely 70s Big
Chebal, aka The French Caveman, has already been mentioned.
Lomu is a beast…
Watching Jonah run is badass.
Well Justin,
I took your advice and pressed my dog and fiance saturday. It was difficult catching the dog, but it went well. Fiance, not as well.
1st rep – “haha, that was fun, do it again”
2nd rep – “haha, that tickles”
This was followed up by her kicking me in the nuts as a reaction to being tickled.
Where the hell was that disclaimer?!
Hmm, depends on the height of the girl being pressed. An unfortunate event, really.
–Justin
That last tackle is particularly awesome, he squares his feet and shoulders up with his target, and reads the target’s reaction, upon realizing the target’s commitment, he puts all his force, power and anger into dominating that silly frenchman.
Should be shown in football locker rooms as a proper open field tackling progression.
Watching those vids of Jonah pisses me off. Being 5’9″ and just shy of 200 I know exactly how it would look if I tried to tackle him… that guy is a freakin frieght train.
Like Skee-Lo says: Wish I was a little bit taller…
Badass non-the-less
Justin, how is your oly lifting going? Very little post since the usaw nationals.
Maslow- hahahahah nice
Damn! I need to start following rugby. These guys are beasts.
He also had thighs that measured 33 inches. Each. And could run the 100M in under 11 seconds. F-ing scary.
Lomu great winger, but his tackles not that impressive for a big man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDq2OPXtZso Jonny Wilkinson 5’10 and 195lbs hits hard!
6′ 5″ 275 with breakaway speed. He made it look easy even against some of the big men. I particularly like the run at the end of the second video where he practically stopped and still threw the guy like 5 feet.
The Chiropractor.
Holy shit that guy is badass. When I think of strength in action, I think of guys like this.
I hope the awesomeness of the “Maori sidestep” (never heard that term before, but it’s good) isn’t lost on the American audience. It might be slightly because when you’re used to watching football that kind of thing isn’t quite as uncommon as it should be (case in point Matt Flynn getting run over last night) just because not all the players on the team are expected to be any good at tackling. In Rugby everyone is, and the pros NEVER missed tackles like that on anyone at all except Lomu. It should be essentially impossible to run over a Rugby player like that no matter how big or strong or fast you are, but Lomu did it on a regular basis. I have no idea how.
Definitely a good call on declaring him 70s Big. I think if he had decided he wanted to be a strongman instead of a Rugby player he would have dominated that sport too. Powerlifting he would have been good but maybe not the best. I don’t usually say this about Rugby players because too many people do and too often it’s bullshit, but he could have owned in the NFL aswell, probably in a variety of positions.
@Burning
Good call man. I think the tackling in the NFL is piss poor at best, well at least from my perspective being a Texans fan and all…. siiiigh. Anyhow, I completely agree, and I too think that Lomu would have been an amazing player in the NFL.
I think saying that NFL players lack the ability to tackle is bullshit. The nature of each sport is different. You really think that rugby players possess an improved tackling ability? The NFL consists of some of the best athletes in the world. That isn’t American elitism, it’s just that our genetic crop go into football.
I don’t have a reason for the disparity, but I’m sure wearing all kinds of plastic armor (helmets, shoulder pads, etc.), having a smaller field, having a higher concentration of players in one area (on average there are probably around 15 players bundles on the line of scrimmage), and having frequent stoppage of play (meaning that they get to rest for 30 seconds after 10 seconds of maximal activity).
If you’re constantly running around doing anything, in this case playing high quality rugby, you will get tackled much easier without even considering the points that I made above and those that I didn’t make.
With that being said, I realize that missing tackles is a rarity in rugby, and that Lomu is a fucking badass and breaks tackles in a sport where tackles typically aren’t broken. My point is that saying rugby players tackle better than NFL players is not only a joke, but stupid.
Lomu. Horgan. O’Driscoll. McCaw. So many great options.
First post. Rugby got me in. Winger turned 8man here. 6′ 155lbs to 200lbs 8 months later
Anyhow, I actually want to argue with Justin. Football players rarely tackle anymore. Minus Antoine Winfield. No one wraps up anymore. Its all shoulder checks. I mean, I like football, but rugby tackles are just better. Technique-wise, at least.
Ray Lewis is still the man, though.
What’s your stance here? That NFL players tackle shitty? That rugby players tackle well? Or that rugby players are better tacklers than NFL players?
–Justin
Also, it doesn’t help that the ball carrier is focused on different things. In football, its find the gap, gas it and try to hang onto the ball. Rugby ball carriers run at playmaking pace, which is to say, not full speed, for one, and they are also thinking about whether to pass, hold for a ruck, try to start a maul, maybe a pop kick if its a half back, etc. Therefore, in most circumstances, I think the rugby ballcarrier is an easier target to hit hard…
Just something else to take into consideration.
OK, I didn’t mean to turn this into a debate about football vs rugby. I didn’t say rugby players tackle better than NFL players, but I do think it’s fair to say they tackle better than NFL quarterbacks and other non-tackling specialists like kickers. So when you see a turnover in football it’s not altogether uncommon to see people miss an easy tackle that a good tackler (like a safety or corner, or any rugby back) would not miss.
No need to get defensive about it.
What you’re saying makes sense and is logical. An argument that says rugby players tackle better than NFL players is not.
–Justin
I guess my comment was viewed on too broad a scale… it did mention that the tackling was piss poor from the perspective of a Houston Texans fan. If you were not aware, the Texans are 5-9 and our defense is ranked 30th in a league of 32… We are “ok” against the run unless the back gets into the secondary, because our team consistently misses open field tackles. I didn’t intend to incite such a reaction, just poking fun at how terrible my team is this year.
Football is one of my favorite sports, 2nd only to lacrosse, and that’s because I’m good at lacrosse and I coach it and play it. So forgive me for getting excited about the Lomu videos. I actually had a day dream about how he might look in the NFL, but like you said the 2 sports are quite different when you look at them from a more specific perspective other than just tackling and such.
So bottom line is that Lomu is a pretty ridiculous rugby player and I am pretty disappointed in the Texans this year.
Oh, I took it out of context. I see what you’re saying. I’m a Browns fan, so I know what you’re talking about, brother.
–Justin
Lets also not overlook the fact that ballcarriers in football are trying to break tackles and gain every possible inch before being tackled. Rugby players are trypically more willing to go down because they have support behind them and are more likely to retain possession than if they break a couple tackles and outrun their support.
I’m a loosehead prop by the way (who played football in college) so typically I ignore everything I just said and try to run every tackler over anyway.
Interesting discussion…I would agree that Lomu could play ball over here and be a high impact player – not because of the skill on display in the vids above…but guys like him are just wired differently. People that play at the highest level of their sport, would likely have done it in other sports (given similar coaching and training….).
If Wayne Gretzky applies himself to a sport other than hockey, he would have dominated. Michael Jordan….ditto, he probably fishes hard!…Tom Brady – if he played hockey instead of football, we would still know that name!
Guys with that mindset are always elite!
I agree with what you’re saying, but the examples are a little sketchy. Tom Brady as a hockey player? He’s just not one of those incredibly athletic guys. If you said baseball pitcher I’d probably agree. But I’m just nitpicking an irrelevant piece to your point.
–Justin
Justin, my initial stance was that “rugby players are fundamentally better tacklers than football players”, but that point morphed into “Rugby and football both pose different challenges to the players involved, however, athletes of both sports are very effective at stopping their opposite.”
Comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdWP8osXdaw&feature=related
Dan Carter is one of the best kickers in rugby (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMXomOLcaJM). I’d like to any nfl player 1)make that kick and 2) make that tackle.
Just sayin’. Not trying to argue, really, just want an excuse to post more rugby clips.
Also, he’s 5’10, 94kg, which makes him and adult male…
And I think we’d all agree that Micheal Jordan wasn’t so great at baseball…
Rugby kickers are most definitely tougher than NFL kickers.
–Justin
Actually, Michael Jordan was pretty good at baseball. He had a couple of weaknesses, but most advanced scouts and people familiar with the situation thought that he would have made a major league roster had the strike not happened.
He was recruited by the Dallas Cowboys in 96 but the money was not what he could make playing rugby so he said no. To bad his health issues cut short his career.