Hero Jonah drives to rescue

Quick thinking by rugby legend Jonah Lomu helped save a chef's finger after an accident in an Auckland restaurant.

The former All Blacks great was relaxing in Plato's Greek Taverna, in Auckland's Ponsonby, when chef Orhan Shin severed the tip of his left index finger while cutting onions. Lomu drove him to Auckland Hospital's emergency department in his BMW 650 convertible but not before doubling back to retrieve the missing piece of finger.

"When we initially left, we got to the lights and I said to him, `Have you still got the piece with you?' He said, `No'," said Lomu. "So we drove back, got the piece, delivered him to the hospital and they reattached it."

Lomu stayed with the man while he received treatment.

"He was losing a bit of blood, as you do with the nerves that run into the tips of your fingers ... I made sure he was well and he was looked after," he said. "They were really helpful and pleasant and kept the guy calm."

Lomu, a friend of the restaurant's owners, was the first person to dine there when it opened this year, said he had "just done what anyone else would do, which is pretty much help someone who needed a bit of help".

Shin, who came from Australia two weeks ago as part of a new team hired following mediocre initial reviews for the restaurant, said he was recovering well. "I'm back in the kitchen, but I'm not touching knives yet."