A giant amongst men, my tribute to Jonah Lomu

In this day and age there are great sportsmen & women. From David Beckham, not only what he has achieved on the pitch, but he has become a fashion icon & humanitarian raising millions for children around the world. On the women side Jess Ennis-Hill what she has also won in her sport after overcoming early injuries and last year regaining the World Championships and only giving birth and raising a child with training on top she must be forged from the same steel her home is famous for. 

But with them two mentioned and all the other sports personalities around the globe, there is but a true giant in the game and he is Jonah Lomu. Standing at 6ft 5in this Auckland born Māori, must of put fear not just to opposing half backs, but the whole team when coming against him. 

He broke records early on in his rugby career as he was the youngest player to represent his school Wesley College, while playing for the team there he was told by his coach that he should start getting use to been this. As not to long after that he was the youngest All Back at 19 years old and with only two international caps he was set loose on to the World stage at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa. He may not have helped New Zealand win in the final as that was South Africa's time. But with his running game, my earliest memory of him is ripping though the English defence. It reminded me of a David Attenborough nature programme where a pride of lionesses are jumping on top of a stampeding wilder beast and the lions are just getting shrugged off, that is such the power, strength & speed of the guy.

It was at the end of 1995 when Jonah was first diagnosed with Nephrotic syndrome he was on dialysis due to the deterioration in his kidney function. He had a Kidney Transplant in 2004.

Jonah scored tries against every major test playing nation in World Rugby except South Africa (12 matches) and Wales (3 matches), he now jointly still holds the record  of 15 tries in World Cup tournaments, which was equalled by South African Bryan Habana at this years World Cup in England. I have to say I am saddened by his passing, but I do think that his shadow will last long over the Rugby world who will mourn this Māori warrior who gave everything into all that he loved & who loved his greatness, Rest in peace big guy. 

Taking on the world - Part 1

Over the years there is one thing that I love doing & that is Volunteering. In the past I have used my services in many charitable organisations and the odd couple of football teams. I do this as I am an active person & I love to be part of a community.

Back in the day I have work in a shop for the Royal Voluntray Service, I have worked at Dial-a-Ride, I have worked at Sheffield FC on match days in the turnstiles & have been the Kitman for Scarborough Athletic FC. At the moment my love of football has lead me to coaching kids football, down at Biercliffe for under 10's & next season under 11's. Not only having that all under my belt and a job I also do two radio shows on Radio Scarborough. Where I co present The Twelfth Man Sport Show with Jerry Scott, I now have my own show on a Tuesday night called The Mixtape show.

All that is amazing, but this autumn something much bigger in coming...

I'll show you how big, 20,000 people applied for this out of that they had to reduce this to 10,000 & from all them I am now one of the 6,000 pack members that will be at 13 venues around England & Cardiff for this years Rugby World Cup. This is something I've wanted to do since the Atlanta Olympic Games in the 90's, I was gutted I missed out in applying for the 2012 London games & last years Grand Départ last year. 

It's been a long process and I couldn't of done this without the support of my family especially My brother Craig & my Nephew Harry also not forgetting my wife Laura.

In this journey so far I've had to show why I deserved to be a Pack member in a face to face interview by showing community spirit & follow the Rugby code of conduct:

I have to be honest I'm relatively new at Rugby, I only got seriously into it when my nephew stared playing for York RUFC & I went to cheer him on at matches. Me, Craig & Harry even picked rugby teams to support to give it a competitive edge. Harry is a Wasp fan as he was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. At the time they played at Adams Park home of Wycombe Wanderers. Craig is a Leicester Tigers fan, as there sponsor it "Caterpillar" the construction and mining equipment manufacturers as there more commonly known as "CAT" which are his initials. My team are Saracens for the only reason a player called Dan Scarbrough played for Saracens in 2004-08 and not only was he a good player but had a awesome surname & was a Yorkshire man.

I do say I'm relatively new to rugby, but Rugby has always been there. My other brother played it and always loved watching The World Cup, The Six Nations & Autumn internationals. So to now be apart of The Rugby World Cup this time around is awesome in my eyes, there is nothing bigger. The games I'll be covering are the two at Elland Road home of Leeds United. 

So I've done all my training I can do at the moment, I have two big dates of training in early July & in August and I've had a look at my uniform which I get in July.