{"id":638262,"date":"2026-06-14T13:06:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638262\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T13:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:06:06","slug":"jonah-lomus-teenage-son-declared-for-six-nations-team-snubs-all-blacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638262\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonah Lomu\u2019s teenage son declared for Six Nations team, snubs All Blacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The son of late All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu has made a stunning admission \u2014 if he follows in his father\u2019s footsteps and reaches the international stage, it won\u2019t be New Zealand he dreams of representing.<\/p>\n

Dhyreille Jonah Lomu, who plays on the wing just like his iconic father, has revealed his desire to one day wear the colours of France. Born in France during Jonah Lomu\u2019s spell with Marseille, the youngster already qualifies for Les Bleus, opening the door to a potential international future away from New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Join the\u00a0RUCK\u2019s WhatsApp community here<\/a>\u00a0and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed\u00a0\u2018Frenchie\u2019\u00a0at school in New Zealand, Dhyreille is already turning heads at age-grade tournaments and is showing early signs of serious talent.<\/p>\n

Jonah\u2019s time in France came towards the end of his glittering career, which also included a spell at Cardiff Blues. Tragically, the global rugby superstar passed away in 2015.<\/p>\n

Jonah finished with\u00a063 caps and 37 tries\u00a0for New Zealand \u2013 and is still widely regarded as the game\u2019s first global megastar.<\/p>\n

But while Jonah lit up the rugby field, his sons Brayley, 15, and Dhyreille, 14, are carving their own path \u2013 with a tennis ball, not a rugby one.<\/p>\n

Their dream of becoming professional athletes led to a switch three years ago from traditional schooling to Te Kura, New Zealand\u2019s correspondence school, so they could maximise their training time.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessional sport is hard, but playing tennis is our life. I love all kinds of exercise, and doing online school means we can fit in a lot more training,\u201d\u00a0says Dhyreille, who strongly resembles his famous dad.\u00a0\u201cDepending on when we can get court time, I can be playing tennis from 9am until about 7.30pm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their mum Nadene, and grandfather Mervyn, play a huge role in their development \u2013 with Mervyn often coaching and shuttling the boys across Auckland for court time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe love within our family is pretty special,\u201d\u00a0says Nadene.\u00a0\u201cDad and the boys cruise and gym together. I\u2019m very grateful to have parents who love me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brothers are humble and well-mannered \u2013 quick to help, respectful, and focused. Brayley is the quieter of the two, but admits:<\/p>\n

\u201cDhyreille is the most competitive by far!\u201d<\/p>\n

LATEST RUGBY NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The son of late All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu has made a stunning admission \u2014 if he follows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-638262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}