AS an aspiring young rugby player growing up in New Zealand, Robbie Hunter-Paul was inspired by Jonah Lomu's rise to prominence.

How on earth couldn’t he be when Lomu was rapidly becoming one of the greatest players the world has ever known?

The hulking winger died last week at the age of 40 after a long-standing battle with a rare kidney condition.

But his legacy will live forever, and Kiwi compatriot Hunter-Paul remembers Lomu's rare sporting talents emerging at Auckland’s Wesley College.

In 1989, he amazingly won 10 of 13 individual events at the college’s sports day and his ability on the rugby field soon came to the fore.

“I never actually met Jonah but I was a young 17-year-old when he was bursting onto the scene in around 1993/94 at Wesley College,” remembered Bulls chief executive Hunter-Paul.

“He played loose forward for them, a number eight, and that’s what he was back then.

“Apparently he also played some rugby league in his early teenage years.

“When he went into the senior ranks, they played him on the wing because he could shift.

“It was great for us as young kids in New Zealand because we were all like ‘look at this guy’.

“The All Blacks and the Kiwis are like gods in New Zealand, so as a teenager it was inspiring to think I could be playing at that level one day too.”

The son of Tongan immigrants, Lomu made his Test debut for the All Blacks in 1994 against France in Christchurch.

As well as playing for several domestic teams in his homeland, he made 10 appearances for Cardiff Blues in Wales between 2005 and 2006, shortly before his retirement.

Despite never winning the World Cup, he is the joint top try-scorer in its history - alongside South Africa wing Bryan Habana, scoring 15 tries in 11 games.

He was at his best at the 1995 and 1999 World Cups, terrifying defensive lines with his awesome physique – 6ft 5in and nearly 19 stone – and speed of an Olympic sprinter.

In a memorable match against England in the 1995 World Cup semi-final, he bulldozed several players and ran straight over the top of full-back Mike Catt on his way to a try.

His performance in that tournament has been widely credited with helping attract the major commercial deals that enabled the sport to enter the professional era.

But a rare kidney condition, nephrotic syndrome, hampered his career and a later transplant was rejected by his body in 2011.

Hunter-Paul added: “We had known Jonah had kidney problems for a long time and he had the transplant a number of years ago.

“It’s devastating to lose him but the man was an inspiration and a New Zealand icon, especially after he confirmed his arrival at the 1995 World Cup.”

The All Blacks lost to South Africa in the final, but there was no shame in that, even if controversy surrounded the match.

Hunter-Paul said: “Losing to South Africa in the final was hard to swallow because we played so well leading up to it and were then poisoned in the hotel in Johannesburg… that’s the conspiracy theory anyway!

“But after the ’95 World Cup, Jonah became a global superstar and that tournament brought together the whole nation of South Africa under the rugby banner.

“New Zealand had to take one on the chin that year to allow another nation to go on to prosperity and come together the way they did.

“That solidified rugby union as a major sport in South Africa.”

After the advent of the sport turning professional in 1995, the competition between league and union for the best talent increased in the rugby hotbed of New Zealand.

“Rugby union’s big problem in New Zealand is the NRL and the New Zealand Warriors,” explained Hunter-Paul.

“Tohu Harris was a rugby union boy playing on the west coast and was invited to a Melbourne Storm training camp in Wellington.

“That’s what the NRL clubs are doing. Out of 150 kids in that training camp, he got picked up along with Jesse Bromwich’s brother Kenny.

“Rugby union saw this happening. But what do you want to do? You want that glamour of being on television.

“It’s a unique selling point in wanting to become a professional sportsman.

“Back in my day, it wasn’t as glamorous. It was brilliant but there was no glamour.

“The guys who played for New Zealand and Great Britain didn’t have high-powered sports cars back then when I was a young teenager.

“Now they have. Now it’s a different world.

“However, what New Zealand rugby union did really well was to agree screening rights for first-class rugby union games, so the young talented boys wanted to stay and play rugby union.

“There are some lessons to be learned there when you’re talking about talent pools and giving kids the opportunity to showcase themselves.

“Maybe there is something in that – being able to be famous. Certainly Jonah Lomu will rightly be remembered as one of the greatest and famous players of all time. His legacy will last forever.”