Brian O’Driscoll and Tana Umaga discuss Lions spear tackle

Brian O’Driscoll and Tana Umaga have said that they have moved on from the 2005 spear tackle that dislocated the former Ireland captain’s shoulder during the first minute of the first Lions test against New Zealand.

O’Driscoll was carted off just 43 seconds into the match after Umaga and All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu slammed him into the Christchurch turf with the former Leinster centre claiming in his 2005 book A Year In The Centre that he initially feared that he had broken his neck.

Umaga branded O’Driscoll a ‘sook’ following the incident, which is a ‘cry-baby’ in New Zealand slang, but both men claim they have buried the hatchet some 13 years after the incident.

“Myself and Tana have met on multiple occasions over the course of the last 10 years and we put to bed what happened in 2005,” O’Driscoll said on Baz and Andrew’s House of Rugby ahead of the Guinness series.

“Yes it was something that both of us would love to change but ultimately that’s been parked a long time ago but for public consumption this is probably a good thing to genuinely show that we’re over it and everyone else should be too.

“It’s hard because at different times with the Lions tour last year it came back up again, I get asked it at every Q&A that I’ve ever done. It’s probably the most regularly asked question so ultimately there’s no getting away from it but from our perspective we’re cool.”

Umaga claims he was the victim of a media campaign following the illegal tackle and said in his book that O’Driscoll attacked his character in the most direct and damning terms and kept going on about the fact that he hadn’t rung him to say sorry.

“Hindsight is a great thing and if we thought about it a lot earlier we would have made sure that we rang a lot of people but we connected every time we bumped into each other,” the former All Blacks captain said.

“We probably needed a crowd just to make it a bit more public and prove that we had put it behind us.”

Dublin, 9th November 2018: Ahead of the Guinness Series kicking off this weekend, former Irish international rugby player Brian O’Driscoll was on hand to preview Ireland’s game against Argentina as a part of Guinness’ #AnswerIrelandsCall campaign. #AnswerIrelandsCall celebrates the camaraderie between rugby fans, by giving them a voice and rallying them to get behind the Irish Rugby team. Throughout the series fans are encouraged to get involved as Guinness is giving away a number of pairs of tickets to each fixture including the sold out Ireland v New Zealand game at the Aviva Stadium. Fans should visit the Guinness Facebook page and leave their message of support using the #AnswerIrelandsCall to be in with a chance to win tickets to the Guinness Series (terms and conditions apply) *.

Guinness is the official title sponsor of the Guinness series and a proud supporter of Irish Rugby.
Enjoy Guinness sensibly. Visit www.drinkaware.ie

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Guinnessireland
Twitter: @GuinnessIreland

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10