Rugby: Jonah says: "I'm the fastest I've ever been"

By Chris Rattue

All Black wing Jonah Lomu declared last night that he was in the finest shape of his career.

Lomu was the star turn at the launch of the Super 12 competition at the Bridgeway Theatre in Northcote.

Just two days ago, he was dropped from the All Black training camp, along with Joeli Vidiri and Isitolo Maka, for failing to meet fitness standards.

Lomu said he accepted there were certain standards to be met but quickly knocked back the impression that he was way off the pace.

"I'm the strongest and fastest I've ever been at this time of the season," Lomu said.

Lomu admitted he was "a lap away" from meeting the 3km endurance time laid down by the All Black selectors and was loath to predict that he could ever meet the mark.

But he said he would "knuckle down" in an effort to get closer.

Lomu also deflected criticism that he should not have gone to England for three weeks during the summer, when he spoke at functions for children's charities.

Lomu said that top players were often accused of "sitting on their backsides" when they were not involved in training and playing, and he had been meeting his obligation to the public. While in England, he had trained in sub-zero temperatures, running around Hyde Park.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Rugby Football Union chief executive David Moffett is trumpeting crowd figures as evidence that the Super 12 is reaching more than the hard-core rugby audience.

He claimed that half a million New Zealanders had attended Super 12 games last season.

Moffett said the competition had been played in front of "modest" audiences in its inaugural 1996 season, but that crowds increased by 30 per cent in each of the subsequent years.

And the hyperbole flowed when Moffett said: "People we researched are using expressions like `one-stop entertainment shop'."