A town remembers its hero
Thousands of friends, fans and mourners turned out in the small town of Porirua this morning to pay tribute to its favourite son, Jerry Collins.
The All Black rugby star died, with his wife, in a car accident in France last week, but on the return of his body to New Zealand, hordes of supporters marched through the town before arriving at Norths rugby club, where he made his name, where his former coach led an emotional ceremony to retire Collins’ jersey.
“@USOuljah: Only JC could bring the hood together like this #WalkForJerry #PoriruaReunion #SetBlue pic.twitter.com/E9ClhOD12V” Wow! Beautiful.
— John Campbell (@JohnJCampbell) June 14, 2015
And the ceremony cleared struck a chord with Collins’ former All Black team-mate, Jonah Lomu.
Jerry touched a lot of people awesome turn out nz n Samoan pride shown here ofa atu uso. https://t.co/FS52ljl0om
— JONAH LOMU (@JONAHTALILOMU) June 14, 2015
Collins’ 10-week old daughter remains in hospital in France but is showing signs of recovery.
[h/t Stuff.co.nz]
