The comparisons with Jonah Lomu are inevitable, but big new All Blacks winger Julian Savea, dubbed “The Bus”, isn’t buying into it, and probably thinks it isn’t even worth talking about.

In fact, he says very little.

Savea, 21, scored three tries on debut as the All Blacks overran Ireland 42-10 in Auckland on Saturday night in the first of three Tests.

That put him on the same page as other All Black greats such as Sitiveni Sivivatu, who scored four tries on debut, and Christian Cullen, who scored three.

Savea, whose parents were born in Samoa, declined a sports scholarship to Wellington College and his first XV coach at Rongotai College, Phil Jones, said he remembered two things about Savea’s first season in the team.

One was that he scored 25 tries – the other was that he hardly spoke.

And despite obviously being more confident than then, he was not saying too much about his feats on Saturday night, which included a big tackle to stop dangerous Irish fullback Rob Kearney in his tracks.

With his size – 103kg and 1.92m – and speed, he appears to be cut from the same cloth as Lomu. But he plays the uncomfortable comparison down.

“I guess what’s happened has happened… I’ve just got to move on and not dwell on the past and just keep doing what I’ve been doing and hope it pans out like this.”

Savea was named 2010 IRB Junior Player of the Year, scoring eight tries in the IRB World U20 tournament. However, it has taken him a couple of seasons at first-class level to find his feet before being one of three new All Blacks named against the Irish.

Another debutant, halfback Aaron Smith, praised Savea’s performance.

“It was good to see The Bus get over the line three times. He’s a good man to watch running around and they’re the guys you want to see running in tries.”