SPECTATOR SPORT
Incomparable Jomah
Frank Keating Cape Town I WAS here in the Deep South for just over a week last year to take in England's two Rugby Test matches against the Spring- boks. They were both passionate occasions all right, but in the general scheme of com- petition no more than a dress rehearsal for the intense and palpitating sudden-death trigger-firing which is about to begin here and now. (Not that any match against Springboks could ever be described as a 'friendly', to which the Canadian XV would testify after last weekend's massed brawl. The Canadians ultimately gave as good as they got. They have not got a deep-rooted rugger culture, but in the end I was think- ing, 'I went to a rugby match and, hey, an ice-hockey game has broken out.') This weekend, at quarter-final stage, the bookmakers are surely chalking up the like- lihood of England, Ireland and Scotland being eliminated. They will go the same way as Wales last Monday. I happened to pass them glumly lumbering through Johannesburg's Jan Smuts airport fingering their bruises on their way to the departure lounge. There were, honestly, still tears moistening some of the unshaven Desper- ate Dan jowls. They knew they had played even more lamentably than in their worst dream. Back home, too, I bet there are still lachrymose rivers dropping to dilute those already watery beers in Wales's dingily romantic tap-rooms and dank bars.
The Welsh coach Alex Evans is an Aus- tralian, so he should know. On Monday he was not only looking like an overacting undertaker, but he said he genuinely felt like one as well. Do not worry, he reck- oned, the three remaining British sides will be in that same departure lounge seven days to the dot: 'The Brits have to stop to change gear. In the Southern Hemisphere teams change gear and off they go, and change again at full pelt. The wet weather, the slush and the mud, makes Northern Hemisphere players far more heavy-footed. The Brits do not know when to step on the gas because they have had no practice at it. I don't know even if they'll ever manage it. Well, do you?'
Certainly you do not over-fancy the Brit trio to manage it this weekend — sorry about that. Of the three of them, Ireland might just rough up the still brittle French, soften them up for a few dandy darts at the line. What a story that would be, the Greens in the semi-final. For Scotland, who had shown all the sharp form thus far, it was wretched luck to concede a French try in injury time after reining them in with such commitment — which tartan quality is likely to be of little use this weekend when trying to harness the remarkable 20-year- old Jomah Lomu the New Zealanders have unearthed in the hills. He is already taller and heavier than our boxer Frank Bruno, and faster than our Olympic champion sprinter Linford Christie at the same age. And his ball sense and touching reactions resemble Ian Botham at slip. The one and only Wilson of the Wizard came from 'nowhere' and wore all-black. The boy careered through Ireland, except once when the tremendous Geoghegan felled him at the ankles like he was lassoing a Kinsale mule (and then, nicely, Jomah ate Wales).
In Johannesburg this week, I asked the New Zealand coach if I might have a one-to- one interview with the mighty young man. 'Sure,' he said, 'we'll put you on the list. The queue is already 220 names long. Come back around Christmas.' They have, in fact, hid- den the boy away from all of us. For one thing, we might be Rugby League scouts. But take my word for it — the final of this rugby union tournament is on 24 June — by midnight on 25 June Jomah Lomu will find himself being tilken to the ball and glittering riches, just like Cinderella, on the arm of Rupert Murdoch's Rugby League.
On Sunday here in Cape Town, of course, England look to beat the champi- ons Australia for the doubtful privilege of setting an imminent meeting with Master Lomu. England have a chance of that, to be sure. They have not shown much form here so far, but that may be no bad thing, and they are sound and self-contained and, as they put it — as everyone puts it — focused. Australia's athletic and free-rang- ing guiles and strategies make them favourites — but with them, too, only till they come up against Jomah of the Wizard.
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