O'Driscoll tackle continues to rumble

Needless to say, the fallout to Brian O'Driscoll's dislocated shoulder continued to prompt a whiff of cordite in the New Zealand air and airwaves yesterday. Clive Woodward's desire to expose Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu for their double-spear tackle on the Lions captain may not have swayed many commentators or public opinion, but it certainly created a stink.

Pictures of the video shots obtained by the Lions PR department, which were melodramatically produced at Sunday night's press conference in a Wellington Hotel, dominated the front pages of papers here yesterday such as The New Zealand Herald, The Press and The Dominion Post.

Most commentators dismissed the Lions' sense of outrage, with Alastair Campbell's presence seemingly a red rag to a bull, and few sided with them, yet the headings certainly would have further prompted the debate.

"Abs win Sir Clive spins."

"Angry Lions Tackle Umaga."

One of the ironies of it all is that video evidence of something as difficult to detect as a biting led to Danny Grewcock's citing and two-month suspension. Yet something as clearcut as a double-spear tackle that, if conducted in an alleyway, would lead to a court case, was not deemed worthy of even a hearing.

"Suspension sure to anger Lions," admitted page one of the Herald's sports supplement.

Hence, in a country where no TV pictures showed the stark brutality of the incident, Campbell and co's concerted push undoubtedly generated the biggest story in the country just now, along with the demand for an apology by O'Driscoll's successor as captain, Gareth Thomas.

O'Driscoll and the Lions won't be inclined to hold their breath for that, although it was striking to see a banner at the All Blacks open training session at Basin Reserve in the suburbs of Wellington with the words: "Shame Tana Cheap Shot."

The All Blacks, unlike the Lions, are conducting weekly open press conferences, each Monday, at the end of which they produce a couple of players for interviews. And it was Aaron Mauger's misfortune to be wheeled out in front of a frenzy of tape recorders yesterday.

"I'm not concentrating on that at all," said Mauger when inevitably asked about it.

"It's just important for us to concentrate on what we're trying to do out on the field. That was just a pure accident. If you look at Tana's record he's a pretty clean player, so we've put that behind us. It's been dealt with and now we're just moving on."

He was asked if he'd conveyed his sympathies to O'Driscoll.

"I didn't get a chance to, but the boys certainly wish him all the best with his recovery. It's pretty sad to see a good player like that leave the tour so early.

"Personally I was looking forward to having a bit of a run against him, to match yourself against one of the best players. So yeah, it's a bit of a shame that he's out of the tour."

Mauger expects Gavin Henson to come into the midfield equation and envisages the Lions not starting with Stephen Jones and Jonny Wilkinson, and while duly expressing respect for whomever the Lions played, he mischievously suggested Wilkinson would play as he'd "won games before for him (Woodward), especially the World Cup final, so probably a bit of emotion comes into it, which is a good thing for Jonny."

Cheeky.

When the dust settles, the reality is that the All Blacks are in command now, with the chance of clinching the series in the Jade Stadium next Saturday.

"I think the boys are pretty excited about the possibility of finishing it off this week, and putting the series beyond their reach. So I don't think it will be too hard to get up for that mentally."

Truly, there's lots more in this All Blacks team yet.

"Yeah, there's definitely improvement in us. Certainly the weather can improve, that would be a start. Hopefully that will improve our performance and it should improve their game as well. And there's definitely aspects of our game we'd like to improve on."

Asked what these were, he said, "A little bit of cleanout work, just making sure our ball is a little bit tidier. Though that was good in some parts but just a little detail that was affected by the rain at the weekend I suppose."

Ironically, Mauger played against O'Driscoll for Clontarf under-19s against UCD under-19s in 1998 when just 17, though he only knows this because he's been reminded about it since. He'd left his home, somewhat reluctantly, as a 16-year-old for what he calls a five-month overseas expedition.