Peter Jackson: So sad that Sinbad’s voyage never sailed fair despite its wonderful beginning

On paper it looked like the worst mismatch of all, Jonah Lomu against James Simpson-Daniel.
A global superstar of gigantic proportion against a little Yorkshire terrier from Gloucester via Yarm, so little that he was conceding eight inches in height and almost six stone in weight.
What happened next will never be forgotten by those of us lucky enough to have been at Twickenham on that May-day 12 years ago when an England XV romped home 53-29 against Lomu’s Barbarians.
When it came to running rings round such galactic opponents, nobody could match the teenaged Simpson-Daniel, least of all Lomu. The new boy duly announced himself with a brand of derring-do which even Jeremy Guscott in his pomp would have been hard pushed to better.
The uncapped England wing started by throwing a pass to himself, a piece of sorcery which bamboozled the Springbok, Percy Montgomery. Simpson-Daniel then skinned Lomu on the outside and his dive into the corner took him beyond another all-time great, Christian Cullen.
It ought to have been the cue for immediate elevation to England’s Test team. None of the other backs against the Baa-baas in 2002 – Michael Horak, Geoff Appleford, Ben Johnston, Phil Christophers, Dave Walder and Nick Walshe – ever became Test regulars. Two more, Kevin Sorrell and Phil Jones, remained uncapped.

Simpson-Daniel had been struck down by glandular fever shortly after his Twickenham initiation, the first of several dirty tricks which fate played on him. Never can a player of more ability been restricted to so few caps, a miserable ten starting with a win over the All Blacks.
He will never be forgotten at Kingsholm, not least because of his hat-trick against Bath in a 68-12. Everyone loved him for his edge-of-the-seat audacity and his innate modesty.
Grandstanding was never his style, no matter how outrageous the try.
“I don’t try to showboat and I don’t do cartwheels,” he said once. “That’s not my thing. I get more out of setting someone up for a try than dotting it down.”
The game as a whole, not just in England, will be the poorer for ‘Sinbad’s’ enforced retirement at the age of 32.
*This article was first published in The Rugby Paper on September 7.