Lomu likened to a 'wasted' Tyson

All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu has been likened to a "wasted" Mike Tyson as he prepares to make his rugby comeback for Welsh club Cardiff.

Lomu is due to arrive in the Welsh capital next month and hopes to play again in December as he seeks to reignite a career stalled by a serious kidney disease.

However, his impending return has not been universally celebrated.

Writing in The Observer newspaper in England, former Welsh international Eddie Butler questioned the wisdom of Cardiff signing Lomu, 30, on a seven-month contract.

"We should be mesmerised by his return. I fear instead that this is the lumbering of a wasted (boxer) Mike Tyson back into the ring," Butler wrote.

"For five years Lomu terrorised rugby. Surely, though, he cannot be anything like the player he once was.

"He has been out for a long time now, his giant frame weakened by kidney disease and then bloated by the drugs he must take following his transplant last year," Butler said of Lomu, who played the last of his 63 tests for the All Blacks in 2002.

Lomu had intended playing for North Harbour this year in a bid to secure a Super 14 contract in 2006 but those plans were shelved when he injured a shoulder in June.

"Part of us should be drawn to his return, even if only to catch a glimpse of the majestic beast he once was," Butler wrote.

"He had pace, size, aggression and even deftness on the very few occasions his power was not enough.

" It is wonderful to see him back. It is horrible to see him back. I really hope he knows what he's doing."

Meanwhile, Cardiff coach David Young warned that Lomu would not be given game time on reputation alone.

"Jonah will have to earn his spot and earn his jersey like anybody else," Young told the Wales on Sunday newspaper after Cardiff secured their third successive win by beating Saracens 37-20 in an Anglo-Welsh Cup match yesterday.

After that game Cardiff chief executive and former Welsh international Robert Norster stressed Lomu's signing was "not a cynical marketing exercise but a rugby decision first and foremost," the Sunday Telegraph reported.

- NZPA