Rugby-O'Driscoll incident back in focus at Blues team naming

AUCKLAND, June 5 (Reuters) - The spectre of the Brian O'Driscoll incident finally reared its head on the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand on Monday. O'Driscoll, the captain of the last Lions to visit New Zealand in 2005, dislocated his shoulder inside the first two minutes of the opening test after counterpart Tana Umaga and All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu upended him at a ruck. The Irishman was ruled out of the tour and the incident created fury among the team and travelling media, with neither Umaga nor Mealamu sanctioned, ultimately casting a shadow over the remainder of a series won comfortably by the All Blacks. Auckland Blues coach Umaga, who addressed the incident in his 2007 autobiography, was questioned about it again when he named his side to face the Lions in their second tour match at Eden Park on Wednesday. "I knew we were going to talk about 2005," Umaga said when asked about what the last series had meant to him. "That wasn't the question I was expecting but thank you for that. "Back then, as a player... it was very special to be a part of the team to play against the British and Irish Lions. "But it's not about that time now. That was 12 years ago and if people can't put it behind them then I suppose they never will. "It's about this group now and their time against the Lions and the memories they make, hopefully they're positive ones then we move on from there." Umaga wrote in his autobiography that he had initially thought O'Driscoll was a "sook" (cry-baby) for the way he had responded to the incident, while he had become incensed at a perceived smear campaign orchestrated by Lions media manager Alastair Campbell. "The sustained personal attack they launched against me was hard to believe and even harder to stomach," Umaga wrote in 2007. "You don't want to take it personally but it's almost impossible not to when another player, a guy you had some respect for, attacks your character in the most direct and damning terms." Several players and former coach Graham Henry, have since said the furore helped galvanise the All Blacks, with the entire team standing behind the captain in a public showing of unity ahead of the second test in Wellington. "It was hard to escape and it struck us deep down," flyhalf Daniel Carter, who scored 33 points in the 48-18 victory, told the Daily Mail earlier this week. "We felt like it was our responsibility to protect him and the best way to do that was to play well in the second test. It became a game for our fearless captain." (Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by John O'Brien)