Umaga gives his thoughts on the tackle he gave that ruled BOD out of the last two games of the 2005 Lions tour

Tana Umaga, the Auckland Blues Rugby Manager faced questioning at a press conference lately, luckily for him he had Blues inside back Sonny Bill Williams to help him out when he asked about a spear tackle on Brian O’Driscoll during the 2005 Lions tour of New Zealand.

Umaga and his team mate All Blacks hooker Kevin Mealamu dropped O’Driscoll head first onto the ground in the opening minutes of the first test. The tackle was that bad that they dislocating O’Driscoll’s shoulder in the process, and he could no longer continue the rest of the series.

It’s been 12 years since Umaga’s tackle on O’Driscoll and its still a question he gets asked about to this day nd is what hes remembered by by most people. While speaking as head coach of the Auckland Blues ahead of their fixture versus the Lions’s on Wednesday, he was asked by a British journalist about the tackle as it apparently ‘still lingers’ with fans of the Lions.

Umaga replied to the Journalist ‘You know, it’s not about that time now. If people can’t put it behind them then I suppose they never will’.

A second journalist then asked him to recall the events of that week, before Sonny Bill Williams came to his Managers defence telling the journalist ‘Mate, let’s just leave it alone, mate!’

Umaga then said, “That’ll be a no.”

Lets just say the former New Zealand player might not be getting a nice welcome come the game on Wednesday evening.

Check the press conference out here.

https://twitter.com/sonnytoiparker/status/871665759872831490