Be under no illusions, Keven Mealamu and Tana Umaga weren’t the victims of that horrendous spear tackle in 2005.
According to the actual victim, Brian O’Driscoll, it was “deliberate foul play, dangerous, a cheap shot.”
That assessment is difficult to disagree with when you look back at the footage of the foul that put O’Driscoll out of the Lions Tour and also saw him sidelined for five months.
After the ball was cleared from the ruck, the Lions centre was seen lying prone on the ground in agony after being upended by two All-Blacks, Mealamu and Umaga. For that reckless challenge in the biggest test match of that year, the two Kiwis walked away without punishment, but O’Driscoll was stretchered off the field with a dislocated shoulder that required surgery.
Mealamu recently opened up about the tackle to Newsroom.co.nz. At the time, he claims he didn’t realise how dangerous it was.
“I just thought it was a typical rugby movement. Until I realised Tana was on the side and we had tipped him up and he had landed on his shoulder.”
“It’s one of the reasons I didn’t go back to see how he was, because it happened so quickly and I had moved on.”
He then moved onto speak about the impact of the challenge, not on O’Driscoll, but rather how it affected him. Both he and Umaga received a lot of backlash for what has since been described as one of the ugliest moments in sporting history, and he hinted feeling a little guilty about distracting the New Zealand team on their tour.
“It’s not something you ever want to do – take the focus away from the team and the performance. It’s something I still feel stink about.”
“We were a tight team to begin with. You can’t imagine how much that drove us. What we wanted to do was to bring it back to rugby and to let our rugby do the talking.”
New Zealand went on to take the Tour, but they did so against a Lions side who were without their fallen captain. No sign of an apology or even a mention of O’Driscoll here. Just about how it affected the perpetrators and their teammates.
Who knows, though? The interview may very well have been edited, but O’Driscoll’s name was certainly worth mentioning at the very least.
