Former British and Irish Lions player Stuart Barnes rates late All Blacks wing Jonah Lomu as the greatest entertainer in world rugby history, but his media colleague Stephen Jones prefers Fijian flyer Rupeni Caucaunibuca.
Lomu topped Barnes’ top 10 box office draws in an article in The Times with the former England fly half anointing the All Blacks wing’s four-try demolition of England in 1995 as his “Michael Jordan moment”.
Barnes listed Lomu ahead of two former No 10s – England’s World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson and mercurial ex-All Black Carlos Spencer.
Jones, the veteran Sunday Times rugby correspondent, went for Caucaunibuca at No 1, ahead of Lomu and Wales wing Shane Williams.
Lomu, Barnes said, was “the easiest choice of all the top ten No 1s” in The Times’ rugby ratings series. “With the size of a second row and the speed and dexterity of a wing Lomu transformed our perception of what rugby could be in just one afternoon in Cape Town when he scored four World Cup semi-final tries against England’ [in 1995].
“It was the Michael Jordan moment that didn’t quite create the ‘global game’ but that’s more to do with the sport than the man. The biggest box office draw of them all. RIP.”
Jones said Caucaunibuca – who scored 15 tries in 14 matches for the Blues from 2002 to 2004 – would have been the “all-time great wing” had he played for the All Blacks.
“He was a wonder runner, and the odd thing was as his weight ascended, it appeared that his elusiveness also became greater. He used to run lines that astonished you, he made gaps out of little cracks in a defence.”
Jones said Lomu was “partly box office because of the sheer power”, but he also had “quick feet for a big man. He could check and go again at pace, he knew where the gaps were as well as the tacklers. In his style, will never be bettered.”
Caucaunibuca failed to make Barnes’ top 10, but he was impressed with third-ranked Spencer, saying “the boss” had “an array of tricks that made him unplayable on his day. Andrew Mehrtens played the percentages better but Carlos drew the crowds with his heart-stopping combination of genius and madness.”
Former Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper was in sixth place on Barnes’ list, and filled 10th spot in the Jones file.
