O’Driscoll and Umaga draw line under 2005 tackle controversy
IRISH rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll and ex-All Blacks skipper Tana Umaga have buried the hatchet 13 years after the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour incident that sparked outrage.
O’Driscoll’s tour was ended just 41 seconds into the first Test against New Zealand as he was tackled off the ball by Umaga and Keven Mealamu, leaving him with a dislocated shoulder.
During the 2017 Lions tour – the first in New Zealand since the incident – Eddie O’Sullivan, who was Woodward’s assistant in 2005, revealed O’Driscoll thought he was going to die as he came crashing to the turf.
But the Irishman is now adamant that the scars have healed and revealed they even joke about the incident nowadays.
“We parked it a long time ago,” O’Driscoll told the Press Association, meeting up with Umaga ahead of Ireland facing New Zealand in Dublin on Saturday.
“It was one of those things. Was it unfortunate? Yeah. Should you have dealt with it slightly differently? Yeah.
“You’ve got to move on. You can’t bring those sorts of things through life.
“Listen, we’re able to have a laugh and take the p*** about it now, properly.
“Sometimes you don’t get an opportunity to meet up with people in a controlled environment. We see each other at events here and there and have a quick word.
“Actually, to have a get together and chew the fat and properly get to talk and not feel scarred by it is refreshing and, I hope, it’s dead after this.”
The Kiwi duo escaped sanction and there was a furious backlash as head coach Clive Woodward produced a Powerpoint presentation at a press conference, detailing what went on.
Fans held up placards that decried Umaga and Mealamu and O’Driscoll was, understandably, upset.
As the feud rumbled on, Umaga later branded the Ireland and Lions skipper a “sook”, Kiwi slang for cry-baby, in his autobiography.
During last year’s tour, Umaga in his role as Auckland Blues head coach, faced a barrage of questions about the incident before suggesting it was time to move on. His star centre Sonny Bill Williams even jumped to his aid, interrupting a question that was being aimed at Umaga about the incident.
“We had a great dinner; that was the key thing for us, to have time together,” said Umaga, as the pair spoke together representing Guinness.
“You pass each other fleetingly at matches and engagements. To really sit down and chew the fat around that was great.
“That’s just part of this game. We can’t change the past. Yet, it is something whenever I do something that I get asked about.
“It is well settled between us as Brian has said. Hopefully this will really put it behind people and we will make peace with it now.”
O’Driscoll concluded: “It dragged on probably longer than it should have because, maybe, it wasn’t nipped in the bud.
“There are some things you wish you could go back and change. From my point of view, I am sure Tana too, there are aspects there too I wish I could have done differently too.”