The All Black that was forged as a garbage dump

Throughout his career playing rugby, Jerry Collins (11/4/1980 Apia, Samoa – 5/6/2015, Beziers, France) only worried about one thing: that they considered him a tough guy but not dirty. His work on the field led him to constantly impact forwards and three-quarters of the rival team, working as a flanker (number 6) and 8. And from there comes his great humanity and love for rugby.

Picking up neighbors’ trash

Just like the legends All Black Brian Lochore and Colin Meads They exercised while working on their farms, Jerry He worked for four years collecting garbage from his neighbors in Poriruathe population of the New Zealand metropolitan area of Wellington on the north island where he moved with his parents and siblings when he was little.

From a humble family, his father frank He worked in a rubber factory and it was difficult to balance the economy under that roof. Jerry He was not a good student and his behavior was difficult. His father, who valued education above all else, changed his school and he was right. He arrived at St Pat’s Town and soon became a star on the rugby team. At 13 years old he was thin but he had guts and the coaches liked that.

He was named best player of the tournament in the U19 World Youth Championship In 1999 and at the age of 18, he became the world’s youngest captain of a senior club rugby team, playing for his beloved Norths Rugby Club. That same year he became part of the staff of the Wellington sharing a dressing room with the legendary Jonah Lomu and went to work for the municipal garbage collection system without pay.

There he met the forwards coach of the Hurricanes, Richard Wattand watched as the young prodigy, a tireless worker, quickly became a professional athlete who used the demanding races to pick up trash. He said in his own words that he was a “full body functional training”. According to him, it was a lesson in “how people are treated”. He picked up garbage for the same people every week, but it wasn’t until he became a professional that they discovered who the garbage man was and the one they didn’t even look at became famous.

In 2001 he signed his professional contract with the Wellington Hurricaneshe left the garbage collector’s job and bought his parents a house, while he moved into the family home they had left behind in Cannons Creek.

Captain All Black

“Putting on the All Black jersey for the first time, at 20 years old, was the most important thing that could happen to me” he once said. The road to get there had been arduous: he broke his leg in two places in 1999, playing with Wellington. It was one of the many injuries that collins had to deal. On one occasion, he said that he always played despite the pain. After debuting with the All Black in 2001, collins He played 48 international matches, scoring five tries. In June 2006, he captained the All Black in a single match against Argentina until 2008 when he left New Zealand rugby to make the jump to Europe.

Sad end in the south of France

The 2008-2009 season he played for Toulon French, in May 2009 reached an agreement with the Ospreys of Welsh For two years, between 2011 and 2013, he played for yamaha in the Japanese league but only 13 games and, at the end of his sporting career, in January 2015 he signed for the Narbonne in the ProD2 French (second division) for six months with whom he could only wear an ‘orange et noir’ shirt eight times.

Unfortunately he suffered an accident on the A9 motorway that leads to Beziers in which he and his companion, who was driving and fell asleep, died. His daughter, a few months old, who was also in the car, was saved because the robust body of Jerry He protected her. During his funeral at the stadium, native Maori dedicated a heartfelt haka to him.

Loved by the fans although he was not a saint

collins He was always one of the public’s favorites for his humor, his frankness and his willingness to chat with anyone although he was no saint. True to his wayward behavior at school, at the age of 16 he ran away from home, but returned secretly after his mother, Galuiahe will stop eating and his father frank threatened to ‘kill’ him if she died. In 2001, frustrated by an injury, he had a fight in a bar Wellington with Kahu Tamateaan acquaintance of the club.

He received several sanctions for dangerous tackles and, curiously, was caught urinating on the field of the Jade Stadium after having a physiological need during a game. When he was in Japan They arrested him for holding a large knife in a shopping center although he defended himself before the police saying that he felt threatened and when he was in Toulonthe president of the club at the time, accused him of being a heavy drinker. collins worked for a security company in Canadahis partner’s country, before signing for the Narbonne where he ended his sporting career and his life journey.