‘We’re just going to cheat’ – Christian Cullen reminisces about the legendary Jonah Lomu and reveals their sly tactics

Christian Cullen has reminisced about his former All Blacks team-mate Jonah Lomu, telling a brilliant story which summed up the great man.

Lomu, who sadly passed away at the age of 40 in 2015, was arguably the first global superstar to come from the sport.

He dominated the game both on and off the field, and for the first few years of his Test career the powerhouse wing was virtually impossible to stop.

Unfortunately, a kidney disorder, which was diagnosed in 1995, hampered him during the latter stages of his playing stint, but for several seasons he was incredible to watch and difficult to face.

Trying to stop Lomu

Most, if not all, teams struggled to bring him to ground and that included Cullen’s Hurricanes outfit.

Lomu played for the Blues at the time and Cullen admitted they had to resort to ‘cheating’ in an attempt to stop the legendary back from wreaking havoc in Super 12 (now Super Rugby Pacific).

“He had a really big step, so when you go to tackle him, you might get one leg but his other leg was already gone, so he had quite a big stride,” he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby ANZ podcast.

“When we played him first against the Hurricanes and Tana [Umaga] was marking him, we said: ‘How are we going to stop him?’ And he said: ‘Well, we’re just going to cheat.’

“We’re just going to come up, try and get offside and just try and get in his face as quickly as possible because we didn’t want him to have that 20-metre [run-up].

“Julian Savea, as good as he was in his prime, if you watch Jonah in his prime, when he bumped people, man, they would go into that wall. It was just the power he had.”

My Rugby World Cup hero: Jonah Lomu

Justin Marshall is another former All Blacks team-mate of Lomu who had to face him in Super 12.

As a scrum-half, Marshall no doubt attempted to stay as far away as possible from the wing so that he didn’t have to tackle the legendary back.

However, it wasn’t just his power which set him apart, according to the 81-Test playmaker, but his acceleration.

‘Explosive and quick’

“What you don’t recognise is how fast he was actually moving, he was super explosive and quick, especially over 20 or 30 metres,” Marshall said.

“After 30 metres, he was losing speed, so you see defenders go and he’s giving them the Basil Brush, but that’s literally because not only is he a big man at 120kgs but he’s moving.

“As a defender, just to catch him, you’ve got to get in a really secure position.”

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