All Blacks superstar Jonah Lomu carts the ball up for Counties Manukau in 1999.

OPINION: Malo e lelei. What a roller-coaster year it has been for Wellington rugby supporters, especially those of Pacific descent.

Our Rugby World Cup win featured local Pasifika heroes Ma'a Nonu, Julian Savea and Victor Vito and we reached the Super 15 and NPC championship finals.

But these victories have been tempered, not just by losses in two of the finals, but by the tragic deaths of Jerry Collins, Poneke stalwart Misiluni Moananu and former Wellington and Hurricanes player Jonah Lomu.

Though Lomu is most famous for his exploits in the black jersey I greatly enjoyed watching him turn out for Wellington at the Cake Tin.

But my strongest local memory was when, as a Counties player, he single-handedly demolished a talented Wellington team.

It is not just the Pacific community, but the entire world that has mourned the passing of Lomu.

The shy giant of Tongan descent showed that if you are talented and have the right attitude then you can overcome humble origins and a difficult youth.

The fact that he played while suffering from a debilitating kidney disease made him even more outstanding, especially given that kept his condition quiet for so long.

Will we ever see another player like Jonah? I certainly hope so, but have things got any easier for talented young PI players since Lomu's day? I'm not sure.

Though the best players become Kiwi idols you only have to attend a suburban barbecue to hear entitled palagi parents complain about the 'large Poly boys' having an 'unfair advantage' in the local kids' grade that Tristram or Jonty plays in.

The parent usually then loudly wonders if soccer might be a safer option.

When do you ever hear a Pacific Island parent loudly complain over the umu about 'bookish palagi boys' unfairly dominating the academic prizes because both parents have English as their first language and they own more chemistry sets?

Talented PI kids from poorer areas are sometimes fortunate enough to receive scholarships to prestigious private or state schools and are often treated very well, with doors normally closed being opened.

But what about other PI kids who might have just as much potential?

They often attend low-decile schools where middle-class palagi parents run a mile if they sense there's going to be a number of 'large poly boys' 'holding back' their own cherubs.

Rugby has been good to its elite PI rugby players, but what about the rest? How many Pacific Islanders are there on the New Zealand Rugby board?

It's still No Country For Brown Men.

Can you name a high-level PI coach or sports administrator besides Bryan Williams and Ken Laban?

Why are there no Pacific Super 15 teams, and why did it take so long for the All Blacks to play a test in Samoa?

That Manu Samoa didn't make it out of World Cup pool play should concern Kiwis.

Nonu or Savea could walk into any corporate box at the Cake Tin and would be treated like royalty by the mostly palagi members of the Wellington business community.

That's the same business community who are currently suing our council for paying their lowest-waged workers a decent living wage.

Can you guess the ethnicity of many of those cleaners, parking wardens and security guards who might be saving to buy their kid a pair of rugby boots?

Lomu's health condition could have afflicted anyone, but what about all the preventable health problems that young Pacific Island kids, many of whom have enormous sporting, creative and academic potential, face?

Pacific Islanders suffer more strokes, rheumatic fever, obesity and other diseases of poverty than most other ethnic groups in this country.

That should deeply concern us, yet palagi barbecue conversation is more likely to focus on the very few PIs who come over from a remote island to 'bludge' on our health system.

The All Blacks have shown that when you combine Pacific fire with Maori flair and Pakeha class New Zealanders are world beaters.

If we made the playing field more level in other parts of our society we might find ourselves excelling elsewhere. What a fitting malo aupito (thank you) that would be to Jonah.