Sir Gareth Edwards, knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2015 for services to sport and charity, was arguably the greatest scrum-half in the history of rugby union. Born on July 12, 1947, in the former mining village of Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, near Ammanford, in South West Wales, Edwards made his international debut, at the age of 19, in a Five Nations Championship match against France at the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, near Paris in 1967. The following season, at the age of 20, he became the youngest ever captain of the Welsh national team, against Scotland at Cardiff Arms Park in the same competition.

All told, as arguably the best player in a back division that included John Peter Rhys ‘JPR’ Williams, Gerald Davies, Phil Bennett and Barry John, Edwards would win 53 consecutive caps for Wales. Remarkably, for a scrum-half, he scored twenty tries for Wales in Test matches. He also won ten caps for the British Lions, notably in New Zealand in 1971, when they lost only one game and won a Test series against New Zealand and South Africa in 1974, when they were undefeated for the entire tour.

Edwards also scored what has been described as the ‘greatest try ever’ when playing for the Barbarians against New Zealand at Cardiff Arms Park in January, 1973. In the first few minutes of the match, Barbarians’ fly-half Phil Bennett retrieved a kick from New Zealand winger Bryan Williams inside his own 22-metre line, sidestepped three opponents and passed to full-back JPR Williams. Twenty-five seconds later, Edwards capped a sensational handling move by diving over in the corner, leading commentator Cliff Morgan to exclaim, ‘A dramatic start! What a score!’

Jonah Lomu, who died unexpectedly in November, 2015, at the age of just 40, after suffering a heart attack, was hailed as the first international superstar in rugby union. Lomu suffered from a rare kidney condition, known as nephrotic syndrome, which hampered his playing career and, ultimately, contributed to his death.

Lomu made his international debut, playing one the wing, for New Zealand against France at Lancaster Park, Christchurch on June 26, 1994, less than two months after his nineteenth birthday; in so doing, he became the youngest player ever to play for his country, beating the previous record set by inside centre Edward Wrigley in 1905. However, it was at the Rugby World Cup, hosted by South Africa, the following year that Lomu rose to prominence.

Standing 6’5″ tall and weighing in at 18 stone or more, Lomu was well-built, muscular and blessed with exceptional speed and nigh on unstoppable in full flight. He was particularly devastating in the semi-final against England in Cape Town, scoring four tries in a 45-29 victory, which led opposing captain Will Carling to call him ‘a freak’. New Zealand eventually lost the final 15-12 to the hosts at Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, but Lomu was nonetheless named as ‘Player of the Tournament’.

At the 1999 Rugby World Cup, principally hosted by Wales, he scored eight tries to break the record for the most tries in a single tournament. All told, his 63 international caps yielded 37 tries, 15 of which came at the Rugby World Cup, making Lomu the joint-highest try scorer, alongside South African wing Brian Habana, in the history of the tournament.

Sogelau Tuvalu is an American Samoan athlete, who briefly found fame at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea in 2011. Having failed to make the entry standard for the shot put, as the fastest runner in is high school, Tuvalu was chosen by his coach to compete in the 100 metres, for which no such standard existed for his country.

Thus, on August 27, 2011, Tuvalu, lined up in the fourth heat of the preliminary round of the 100 metres at the Daegu Stadium. Aged just 17, not wearing running spikes and, according to the Daily Mail, ‘twice the size of the other six competitors’, the youngster was fighting a losing battle right from the gun. Commensurate with his pre-race odds, of 50,000/1, Tuvalu was always a long way last and trailed in 4.89 seconds behind the winner, Malaysian Mohammed Noor Imran Hadi.

Nevertheless, Tuvalu ran hard all the way to the finish line, even managing a dip finish, and was rewarded with a personal best time of 15.66 seconds. In slightly breathless, but nonetheless enthusiastic, trackside interview with BBC Sports broadcaster Sonja McLaughlan, he said that his first experience of international competition was ‘really fun’ and, despite his obvious limitations, described athletics as a ‘cool sport for me’. Tuvalu later told French television that he had devoted four hours a day for a month to his preparation for the World Championships and described his participation as ‘a dream come true’.

Remarkably, 15.66 seconds is not the slowest time for the 100 metres recorded at the World Athletics Championships. On August 2, 1997 in Athens, Greece, Kim Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis ‘ran’ his heat in a time of 21.73 seconds alhough, in his defence, he suffered an injury mid-race, slowed to a walk and limped across the line.