New Zealand great Jonah Lomu is humbled and excited to be part of a rugby team again following his lifesaving kidney transplant, he said at his presentation by the Cardiff Blues on Monday.
Lomu, attempting to revive his career after a kidney transplant in June last year, has a seven-month contract to play for Cardiff in Welsh and European competitions.
Once rugby’s highest-paid and most feared player, 30-year-old Lomu has since his operation played only half a game of rugby, in a festival match last June in London for former England captain Martin Johnson. He injured his shoulder in that match, which ruled him out of New Zealand’s domestic season, and left him unavailable to play for Cardiff until December 1.
The winger could then be eligible for home games against Calvisano on December 17 in the Heineken Cup, and Newport on December 27 in the Celtic League.
”My first challenge is to break into the 22,” Lomu said. ”There are a lot of excellent players here; I don’t expect to walk into the team.
”I have to learn the patterns of the team, and the way they do things here before I can start thinking about my first match.
”I’m the new boy here, and I expect to have to earn the right for my place. It’s been like that in every team I have always played for.”
Lomu’s ultimate ambition is to play in the 2007 World Cup in France. The 63-Test veteran last played for New Zealand in 2002 before his rare illness, nephritis, worsened. He underwent almost daily blood dialysis until he received a donor kidney. At its height, the illness left him barely able to walk. — Sapa-AP