He is widely regarded as the most exciting rugby player of all time; a man who transcended his sport and became a worldwide phenomenon; an icon of the game and its first true superstar. Jonah Lomu should have been celebrating his 50th birthday today. However, the legendary All Black tragically died from a heart attack after returning home to New Zealand from the 2015 Rugby World Cup , having been diagnosed with a rare and serious kidney condition two decades earlier. It was a loss that shook the rugby world, with tributes pouring in for the giant of the game from right across the globe. Many of those tributes came from right here in Wales. After all, Lomu had created international headlines by signing for Cardiff in 2005, a move that Gareth Edwards claimed at his unveiling was like "bringing Maradona to play for Cardiff City or the Swans". While he was admittedly no longer at his peak as a player, having won the last of his 73 All Blacks caps three years earlier and battled his kidney disorder for some time, Lomu was still a box-office draw for fans and made a huge impact on Welsh rugby in the few months he spent at the Arms Park. One moment in particular summed up the man as well as the player, however, as the New Zealand great was confronted by a fan during Cardiff's clash with the Scarlets at Stradey Park in 2006. While many of the 9,364 fans inside the ground had come just to see Lomu, one took the opportunity to hurl abuse at him. TV cameras caught the supporter, wearing a Scarlets shirt, throwing a loose ball over the Kiwi's head before "gesticulating [at him] and acting in a threatening manner", as The Times reported at the time. Some of those in the crowd may have had flashbacks to Eric Cantona's infamous kung-fu kick towards a Crystal Palace fan just over a decade earlier, but Lomu - all 6ft 5in, 19st 10lbs of him - showed incredible powers of restraint and simply turned the other cheek. “Huge international headlines precariously hung in the balance,” wrote Ian Wooldridge of the Daily Mail. “A single retaliatory punch from Lomu, who stands 6ft 5in, weighs 19 stone and once legitimately mowed down three English heavyweights in a single charge at Twickenham, could have reduced the Welsh population by one. “The great Lomu turned the other cheek and calmly walked away, a gesture of nobility which not for a moment I fear, will sedate the antagonism of fans too stupid to accept that sport, from its inception, has been about winning or losing with equal grace.” Lomu's response was an example of how a top sportsman should conduct himself in the face of provocation, while the man who confronted him was handed a life ban by the Scarlets for his “irresponsible and unacceptably aggressive behaviour”. However, Lomu's influence on Welsh rugby goes beyond what he did on the pitch, or even in the stands, with former Wales and Lions star Josh Navidi revealing the role the All Blacks great played in helping him reach the top of the international game earlier in his career. While Lomu was playing in Wales, he was part of a Q&A event at Bridgend Rugby Club with local boy Navidi in the audience. Their meeting would end up changing the Wales flanker's future as he was convinced to up sticks and fly across the world to try out something new. “I was at a Q&A with Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen at Bridgend," the now-retired back rower explained in an interview with the Lions website last year. "My dad spent half an hour talking to Jonah. He said you should go to New Zealand and go to Canterbury. So straight after my GCSEs, I flew out to New Zealand with my dad and went to Canterbury Academy. "They said I needed to go to a college, I went to St Bede’s and was there for two seasons. In my second year, we were third in New Zealand, I met some amazing people. “I came back from New Zealand and wrote a CV, I handed one to Ospreys and one to Cardiff," he added. "The Ospreys said pop on down but Cardiff said we’ll have a meeting, show you everything we do. That is how I ended up in Cardiff, playing 189 games. Navidi is not the only player with a reason to be grateful to Lomu, with Leigh Halfpenny also revealing how the New Zealander had left him lost for words after reaching out to him on social media weeks before he died. Naming Lomu as the player - past or present - that he would most like to have lunch with in an interview with Harlequins earlier this year, the Wales centurion explained: "The impact he had on the game... he kind of transcended the sport. "I did my ACL in 2015, just before that World Cup and he actually tweeted me to say 'really sorry about the injury'. I would love to have just been able to meet him in person to be able to say thank you, because I couldn't believe it when it came through on my phone. "The notification came up and I was like 'woah!'"