Gerry Thornley in Auckland
Fears that the infamous 'Speargate', or double spear tackle by Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu, which ended Brian O'Driscoll's Lions' tour last summer here, would raise its ugly head haven't been long in materialising. There is sure to be constant references to it in the local media and O'Driscoll himself is bound to be questioned about it at tomorrow's team announcement.
In the meantime, Eddie O'Sullivan gave it his straightest bat at the side of the Eden Park back pitch during training yesterday as a game of Gaelic football evolved behind him. "That's all done and dusted. That's ancient history I think, there's no point in talking about it." In Saturday's New Zealand Herald, ironically on the back page of a sports supplement mostly devoted to the World Cup and the All Whites' friendly with Brazil, the eminent grise of NZ rugby writing, Wynne Gray, referred to the controversial incident in the opening line of a piece on O'Driscoll.
Entitled 'O'Becks minus his Posh', the heading was a reference to the break-up of the Irish captain's relationship with Glenda Gilson which actually dominated the article, with Grey speculating: "What headspace will it leave the 27-year-old in for the three-test tour Downunder to New Zealand and Australia? Will he play with a free spirit or will he be encumbered by the anxieties of his lost love?"
Judging by the high spirits of the Irish captain and his team-mates at their opening work-out on the Eden Park back pitch yesterday there can only be one answer. Indeed, the unusual openness of the session, with cameras and media allowed to attend, was readily explained by the absence of virtually any rugby - with the squad enjoying a lengthy warm-up followed by games of Gaelic football and soccer.
Honours were shared with O'Driscoll's bibs avenging their Gaelic defeat with victory in a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw featuring goals by Mick O'Driscoll and an equaliser by Paul O'Connell - the latter indulging in a Thierry Henry-type pose, lying on his side while resting his head on his hand.
For the record, Peter Stringer and physio Brian Green had penalties saved by Neil Best, while Andrew Trimble and Marcus Horan put their kicks wide, with Bryan Young, Isaac Boss and Denis Leamy beating Best, while Keith Gleeson, Donncha O'Callaghan (a belter into the bottom corner) and David Wallace all detecting that the bottom corner was the best place to beat John Hayes.
In the sudden death shoot-out, Hayes and Best in turn missed, before Gordon D'Arcy and Mick O'Driscoll scored, and then Leo Cullen, Denis Hickie and Paul O'Connell all failed with their spot-kicks before Tommy Bowe sealed the shoot-out by 5-4. O'Connell's disgruntled team-mate, fellow Roy Keane devotee and Man United fan, Anthony Foley, was still analysing O'Connell's head-up approach for some time afterwards.
In truth Grey and much of the NZ media appear to be treating the Irish threat next Saturday with due respect in light of recent provincial successes augmenting the Triple Crown, all the more so given Graham Henry's selection policy for the two Tests against Ireland and ensuing trek to Argentina.
At face value, the team already named to play the Pumas looks closer to a first-choice selection. One would use the term second-string advisedly given the memory of last November's chastening 45-7 defeat at Lansdowne Road, but by most estimations only six or seven potential Tri-Nations front-liners will be lining up for the kick-off against Ireland next Saturday.
As well as Anton Oliver, they include some judiciously placed more experienced players, with Richie McCaw leading the side and Aaron Mauger at inside centre to guide Luke McAllister at outhalf.
A possible starting XV, to be announced tomorrow, might read: Mils Muliaina; Doug Howlett, Ma'a Nonu, Aaron Mauger, Joe Rokocoko; Luke McAllister, Byron Kelleher; Clarke Dermody, Anton Oliver, Carl Hayman, Troy Flavell, Greg Rowlinson, Jerome Kaino, Richie McCaw, Rodney So'oialo.
This would mean debuts for Dermody and Rowlinson, the former having packed down alongside Oliver and Hayman for the Highlanders in the strongest scrummaging front-row of the New Zealand franchises this season.
The South African Rowlinson only qualified under the residency ruling less than a fortnight ago while Kaino, who underwent shoulder surgery last December and only broke into the Blues' team for their last three games, is a ball-playing, hard-running 6' 4" blindside flanker.
Ironically, too, O'Driscoll's counterpart last summer and the other eye in the 'Speargate' storm, Tana Umaga, has become the centre of a new controversy. The former All Blacks' captain hit Wellington team-mate Chris Masoe on the head with a handbag (you couldn't make this stuff up) at around 6am in a Christchurch bar called the Jolly Poacher after their Super 14 final defeat to the Canterbury Crusaders a week ago. The subsequent fall-out, and the extent to which this story dominated yesterday's Sunday newspapers, front and back, gives an idea of how all-consuming rugby is to the people in this country.
Masoe had responded to being accidentally tripped up by another customer in the bar by punching the fellow patron, whereupon Umaga grabbed his team-mate and hit him over the head with the celebrated weapon. Masoe was fined NZ$3,000 by the NZRU.
The owner of the handbag, Nicole Davies, a 20-year-old Christchurch receptionist, whose mobile phone was also broken in the incident, put the handbag up for sale on TradeMe on Thursday, thereby sparking a remarkable bidding frenzy and even a mini-industry, which also featured an artist's impression which fetched NZ$600.
By the end of the auction at 7pm on Saturday night, more than one million hits had been logged on the site, with almost 10,000 people on-line at one stage on Saturday. Drink-fuelled bids reached $1 million-plus at one stage but when all the fake bids were cleared away, astonishingly the famed $50 'Roxy' handbag was sold for NZ$22,750 to a 46-year-old woman in Wanganui, Sue Langmaid, who commented: "I buy houses and handbags."
Meanwhile, the former Irish, Wasps and Connacht coach Warren Gatland, now at Waikato, has rubbished reports in the English media speculating that he will be interviewed this week for the newly created position of elite direct of rugby in the English RFU.
"I don't know anything about it and it's not true at all," he maintained. "I haven't heard about meeting anyone and I'm completely committed to Waikato and New Zealand."
