The All Blacks video that highlights Lomu’s most underrated skill
As long as rugby exists, Jonah Lomu will be remembered as one of the greatest to play the game, famed for his size, strength and speed.
The 73-cap All Black has probably the most legendary reputation in the history of the game and has reams of highlights reels to show why. But a recent list shared by the All Blacks highlighted one his strengths that is perhaps forgotten about, which was his offloading game.
The All Blacks shared a video of ten crazy offloads from their players, and one from Lomu against the Wallabies in 2000 featured.
The sight of Lomu rampaging down the left wing with what looked to be a ping-pong sized rugby ball in his left hand as he threw defenders away with his right is all too well known, but very often if he did not go on to score, he would be able to get an offload away. With an army of tacklers usually approaching, there was often a lot of space elsewhere for him to pass into, as shown against Australia:
It is perhaps easy to forget Lomu’s offloading game, possibly because after swatting away defender after defender in brutal fashion, the offload would actually seem incidental. But the offload against the Wallabies certainly was not a one-off. Here is another example:
Elsewhere in the video, Beauden Barrett takes centre stage with two of his offloads making the list. One was obviously the miraculous back of the hand pass he produced against Argentina in the Rugby Championship last year.
No offloads list is complete either without the mandatory inclusion of Sonny Bill Williams, whose only means of passing seemed to be through extravagant offloads during his career. The centre only has one entry on the list though, which may surprise some people. However, the All Blacks could easily produce a montage solely dedicated to Williams’ offloads.
