England rugby legend Jason Robinson has been left devastated by the death of Va'aiga Tuigamala after revealing the All Black legend helped save him from the brink of suicide.
Robinson has previously spoken of Tuigamala's influence during their days together at English rugby league side Wigan, saying he helped drag him away from a life of heavy drinking as he struggled with the professional environment.
The World Cup winner said he considered taking his own life when things started to spiral out of control and he was arrested in the mid 1990s for affray, assault and criminal damage.
But the friendship he formed with popular Tuigamala helped him find faith in God and turn his life around.
"I got into a situation where I was drinking sometimes six nights a week," Robinson told Jason Robinson: Sports Life Stories.
"Monday it was Wakefield, 10 pence a pint night. Tuesday I would be over to Liverpool, Wednesday it would be Oldham. Thursday it would be Wigan. And after the game we would go out wherever."
"I can remember I just sat in my bedroom with an old knife, an old meat cleaver.
"I didn't want life to go on in this way. That night when I contemplated doing it, I wept like a baby.
"Had it not been for him [Tuigamala], coming into the environment I was in and putting a different slant on it, I certainly wouldn't have the hope that I've got now. And hope is something that people can't take away."
That hope came through Tuigamala introducing Robinson to his faith.
"I used to watch him in the dressing-room and thought 'what is it about this guy?' He didn't go out drinking, he wasn't looking round the car park to see if anyone had a better car, he didn't sleep around, all the things that you - misguidedly - think are the clever things to do," Robinson said of Tuigamala.
"I didn't have to ask him the secret of this happiness, I knew what it was - his relationship with God."
The rugby league and union superstar played for Wigan, Samoa, New Zealand and Newcastle Falcons, a signing which saw him transfer for a world record £1million fee.
News of his death comes just a matter of weeks after his younger sister, pastor Helen Verry, died on January 30 after being seriously injured at a church in West Auckland. She was the youngest of 15 siblings. The reported workplace accident is being investigated.
The cause of Tuigamala's death is yet to be confirmed, but it has emerged he had been in hospital during recent days.
Born in Samoa, Tuigamala played for the All Blacks on 19 occasions in union before later representing Samoa in league (twice) and union (23 caps).
Following the announcement of his death on Thursday, Robinson said: "Absolutely heartbroken! I owe so much to this amazing man! Literally helped change my life when he came to @WiganWarriorsRL from NZ. Sending all my love and condolences to the family at such a sad time. RIP brother".
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