Legendary All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick joined Wednesday Night Rugby on Off The Ball, where he spoke about the great New Zealand wingers including Jonah Lomu.
In a wide-ranging chat, Fitzpatrick spoke about how he almost accidentally became the New Zealand captain after the disappointments of the 1991 Rugby World Cup as well as recalling the first time he set his eyes on Jonah Lomu.
"Firstly, you're too fat, secondly you're too slow, thirdly, you're bloody arrogant.'
Sean Fitzpatrick on winning back his shirt.@vodafoneireland #teamofus https://t.co/Tv42jhezkw— Off The Ball (@offtheball) May 6, 2020
The subject of Lomu arose from a story about how Jeff Wilson was to replace John Kirwan in the team for a European tour in the early 1990s.
Great wingers
Fitzpatrick insisted being with coach Laurie Pairs when Kirwan was delivered the news of being dropped for not scoring enough tries.
Fitzpatrick remembers the exchange clearly: "John Kirwan responded, 'Do you know why I'm not scoring enough tries Laurie, because that fat hooker of yours is standing on my wing, scoring my tries."
"We had some great wingers and a year later was the launch of Jonah Lomu," recalled the former All Blacks captain.
Fitzpatrick called to mind the first time he saw Lomu play.
"We saw him in 1993 In Dunedin for the New Zealand Schoolboys, against the Australia Schoolboys. they used to play before us.
"We arrived at the ground about an hour-and-a-half before kick-off and watched 20 minutes of the Schoolboys' game.
"The number eight for New Zealand Schoolboys scored four tries off the back of the scrum. We all went 'who the bloody hell is that?'
"They said 'that's Jonah Lomu,' and within nine months he was playing on the wing for the All Blacks."
Wood added a further poignant link to that story as New Zealand Schoolboys had toured Ireland that year too.
"The same year," remembers Wood, "they played Ireland. He was number eight and Anthony Foley as number eight, opposite him. Sadly, both have since passed."
Jonah Lomu - Global Superstar
It was the World Cup in 1995 where Lomu truly announced himself globally, but he was not in coach Laurie Price's original plans, but injury intervened and he was taken from the sevens team to the Rugby World Cup.
In the build-up to the 1995 New Zealand were in Johannesburg trying to soak up the atmosphere, a mistake, admitted Fitzpatrick, such was the fame of Jonah Lomu.
"We couldn't go anywhere, Jonah has just turned into this international superstar.
"He's the only superstar we've had and I think he'll be the only global star we'll ever have.
"The impact he had on that World Cup, literally in the space of three or four games [meant]] he had turned in to this megastar."
