‘Speargate’: Television stills from the controversial tackle in 2005.Credit:AP
Tana Umaga and Brian O'Driscoll have met to bury the hatchet and they hope the rugby world will too.
The pair were captaining the All Blacks and Lions in their New Zealand series in 2005 when Umaga, with help from hooker Keven Mealamu, took out O'Driscoll in the opening Test with a questionable tackle that launched "speargate" and the controversy has raged ever since.
Now, on the eve of the world champion All Blacks playing Ireland in Dublin this weekend, the pair are hoping the matter can finally be laid to rest.
They revealed in a chat about Sunday's Test as Guinness Series ambassadors that they had settled their own differences some time ago and had a lengthy and friendly dinner together recently "to chew the fat" again.
"We were just chatting about it the other night. I get asked about it all the time," Irish great O'Driscoll, who suffered a tour-ending shoulder dislocation in the tackle, said at the media event where the pair even shared a Maori hongi.
"In any Q&A over the last 13 years, it is probably the one question I can guarantee. It was talked about last year because it was that 12-year [Lions] cycle. We parked it a long time ago.
"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 piss 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 scared by it is refreshing and, I hope, it's dead after this."
View from the gallery: A woman holds up a banner chastising then All Blacks captain Tana Umaga for his tackle on Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll during a public training session at The Basin Reserve.Credit:Fairfax Media
Umaga, the blockbusting centre who these days coaches the Blues in Super Rugby, agreed in a report in the Irish Examiner.
"Exactly, we had a great dinner. That was the key thing for us, to have time together. You pass each other fleetingly at matches and engagements," he said.
"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 and it is well settled between us, put it behind us. As Brian has said, hopefully this will really put it behind people and we will make peace with it now."
‘I hope, it’s dead after this’: Blues coach Umaga.Credit:AAP
The pair are adamant the Lions remain relevant and point to last year's pulsating return series in New Zealand which was drawn.
Umaga believes the Irish players running out this weekend who were in the Lions will take great heart from that tour on the back of their breakthrough defeat of the All Blacks in Chicago the year before.
But he also warned Irish fans that New Zealand would be motivated by the "scars" dealt to the All Blacks from those tough matches.
"You learn a lot from the scars that you get. If you think it was a nick, you can get complacent and see it as just an anomaly. If the scar is deep enough, you get to learn a lot more out of it," Umaga said.
"For us, the first time that it's happened scars you deeply when you are part of the side that has created history, not the history that you want.
"For me, I would say it would scar them deeply. They want to make sure that they can put things right in their minds.
"I don't think you can discount what's happened in the past and how much it means to the All Blacks to do well against the Irish at home, which is going to be tough, because it means a lot for now.
"It also means a lot going forward into next year with the World Cup coming up."
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