“I’m not sure how it came about,” he said. “It was disappointing to see him get injured so early. That’s all I can say. I don’t want to talk about that kind of thing. There were a few incidents out there that will be under scrutiny over the next few days, and there are people who have to look over those things. You’ll know when I know.”
Keven Mealamu, the other All Black close to the scene of O’Driscoll’s injury, was similarly vague. He was also unable to comment about an alleged biting incident. All Blacks coach Graham Henry, expressed surprise that these questions were being asked in the first place, preferring to talk about the excellence of his team’s lineout performance, which he rated “our best in the past two years”.
Forwards coach Steve Hansen agreed. “We set out with the aim of giving them poor-quality possession and achieved that,” he said. “We felt their tight five was something they thought was a strength and like any strength, you attack it, and if you attack them often, you get them to question themselves a wee bit.”
Doubtless the Lions head coach, Sir Clive Woodward, knew what was coming from the Kiwi press. The tabloid Sunday News led the onslaught with headlines such as “Spin that, Alastair”, referring to Lions media adviser Alastair Campbell, and “The future is Black”, while also promoting the Sir Clive-bashing ditty, “He’s got the whole world in his squad.”
Former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains was in vindictive mood, having been critical of the tourists even before they arrived in New Zealand. “Woodward’s decision not to play his Test team together before the first Test, backfired,” said Mains. “The Lions proved what I have been saying since they first touched down here. They are the worst Lions team to come to New Zealand. If you want to sum the game up: the All Blacks played extremely well and the Lions are fortunate it wasn’t dry.”
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In the same paper, former All Black Andy Haden wrote: “Will Greenwood is past it, so is Neil Back, and Jason Robinson didn’t help . . . by turning up late, playing one game and getting selected ahead of blokes who have been doing the donkey work . . . the Welsh chorus will become a crescendo as they claim spots for those players they felt should have been in the first Test team.”
Meanwhile, Gregor Ford at the Sunday Herald heralded a “complete All Black performance”. He wrote: “The Lions came here to scrum and bludgeon their way to a tTest series victory.
“Their forwards, we were told, would be a fearsome unit — nasty, thuggish sorts who would deal to an All Black pack burdened by one too many piano shifters prone to the odd tickle of the ivories. The delusional aspects of that thinking were exposed before half-time, by which time the Lions lineout had disintegrated.”