WINGING IT FOR LONGER

TYPICALLY POWER WINGS DON'T LAST LONG IN THE ALL BLACKS. BUT CALEB CLARKE AND RIEKO IOANE ARE HOPING TO BUCK THE TREND.

- CALEB CLARKE AND RIEKO IOANE

There's a sad truth that there is a lifespan, and it's typically short, for power wings in New Zealand.

No one – not Jonah Lomu, Julian Savea, Joe Rokocoko or Inga Tuigamala has enjoyed a long career at the top of the game. It just seems to be the way it is – that it's a small window of opportunity for those with explosive pace and power to stay at the top of international rugby.

If we look back none have been able to do it. Tuigamala was the original prototype and left audiences in the UK flabbergasted when he toured there in 1993 with the All Blacks.

And in some respects, it was the impact he made that ultimately ended his test career as Wigan, England's best rugby league club, saw him and decided they wanted him.

With no money available in rugby, Tuigamala was off and everyone was left wondering what might have been.

He did enough, however, to sow the seed of an idea in the head of All Blacks coach Laurie Mains.

The idea of a macro-sized left wing held enormous appeal and Tuigamala had whet the appetite, which is why in 1994, Mains picked the 120kg Jonah Lomu in the All Blacks No 11 jersey to play France.

It was a crazy, wild risk as Lomu had spent his school days in the back-row and had not the faintest idea what he was doing on the wing.

Those first tests were a disaster but as we all know, by the following year, Lomu was the most amazingly destructive attacking wing the world had ever seen.

He owned the 1995 World Cup. At just 20 years old he was incredible and everyone wondered just what sort of an amazing career he would have.

But as everyone also knows, Lomu was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome and while he incredibly managed to play through it, his career was reduced to three great years – 1995, 1996 and 1997 and one more great World Cup in 1999.