in his comeback. Lomu’s aim was to return to the National Provincial Championship and reclaim his All Blacks jersey for the 2007 World Cup. Lomu ended up playing for North Harbour in round four of the National Provincial Championship, in a match against Wellington, playing in the last 26 minutes of the game. Harbour won the match 31–16. Lomu said after the match “For me it’s a dream come true...I’ve always said this is my goal – to come back and play in New Zealand.” It became apparent in early 2007 that Lomu was not going to make the Rugby World Cup after not signing with a New Zealand Super 14 franchise, therefore ruling him out for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. Previous to not gaining a Super 14 contract, Lomu had been demoted to the North Harbour 2nd XV. Lomu stated that he was disappointed by his failure to gain a Super 14 contract, but that he had not failed himself. [31] It was subsequently speculated that Lomu may have played in Australia in 2007 for one of the then new national competition clubs. On 16 October 2006, it was reported that Lomu was close to switching codes and signing for the Gold Coast Titans, a new Queensland franchise in the National Rugby League competition. He was offered a relatively small contract of one hundred thousand dollars. However, the deal did not materialise as Lomu had numerous important sponsorship contracts with companies associated with rugby union and it would have proved difficult to reconcile these if he was to play in the NRL. On 5 November 2006, the BBC reported that Lomu was considering a return to Welsh rugby. He last played rugby in Hong Kong to take part in the Tens competition. Jonah Lomu has lent his name to various video games including Jonah Lomu Rugby (1997) and Rugby Challenge.
31