Mealamu: I regret THAT spear tackle
THERE was an inevitable line of questioning when Tana Umaga took his seat after naming his Blues team to face the Lions.
How does he reflect on the spear tackle — which he committed with Keven Mealamu — that ended Brian O’Driscoll’s 2005 Lions tour after just 41 seconds?
‘ That was 12 years ago,’ he answered. ‘If people can’t put it behind them, I suppose they never will. It’s not about that time now. It’s about this group now and their game against the Lions.’
There was a second line of questioning about the incident that dislocated O’Driscoll’s shoulder, but it ended with All Blacks and Blues centre Sonny Bill Williams stepping in as henchman.
However, the other man involved in the tackle, Mealamu, did express remorse for the incident.
‘ You wish you could turn back the clock,’ Mealamu told
Sportsmail. ‘But it happened — and it happened a long time ago. He was a player who I was in awe of and I wish it had never happened.
‘When I think about what happened on the field, it all happened so quickly. I didn’t realise how bad Brian was hurt until after the game. You try your hardest on the field and sometimes things happen.
‘I always loved playing against him because I’d watched him play for such a long time. He was such a great player. I bumped into him in a hotel restaurant this year but it’s water under the bridge now.’
What followed back in 2005 was a public interrogation of the All Blacks pair. But it was Umaga who stood in the firing line as captain — taking the heat away from his team-mate.
‘Most of the questions went to Tana,’ said Mealamu. ‘ He took most of the brunt. He’s always been a big brother like that.
‘There was a lot of talk at the time and it brought us together. He was our captain and he had a lot of mana (prestige). He commanded respect through the way he played and now you see that through his persona as a coach.’
Umaga is hoping to steer the Blues to a famous victory tomorrow. He named a side featuring eight All Blacks and is plotting the first scalp against a Lions side who struggled against the Provincial Barbarians on Saturday.
‘The media has got on their back but that’s what happens with a juggernaut like the Lions,’ said Umaga.
‘There’s big expectation for them but we’ve got big expectation on ourselves, too. How do we handle that? If you play well, you get remembered and if you don’t play well, that’s remembered, too.’