O’Driscoll tackle ‘done and dusted’

THE International Rugby Board (IRB) insist the Brian O’Driscoll spear-tackle case is “done and dusted” — but will use new footage of the incident as an example to referees of the sort of ‘illegal ’conduct to clamp down on in future.

The Irishman was left with a dislocated shoulder after he was up-ended and dumped to the ground by New Zealand captain Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu after a minute of play in the Lions' first test match in Christchurch last summer.

An independent citing officer decided to take no action against the All Blacks pair, despite the protests of Lions coach Clive Woodward, and the IRB have made it clear no action will be taken now either.

"Unfortunately there are no retrospective penalties as part of the regulations," IRB communications director Greg Thomas said.

"The tour agreements only allowed for a 12-hour citing window, so that is done and dusted and we have to look forward to the future of the game."

Thomas added: "The evidence shown to the independent citing commissioner at the time was very inconclusive, and looking at the footage at the time, it certainly didn't give us the view that we now have.

"That's in the past, we're very keen to make sure the game of rugby is clean and illegal tackling does not take place and we want to minimise it in the game."

Thomas added: "The footage does show the incident in a bad light, it was a bad tackle and we are addressing this at an international referees' conference in November where very clearly referees will be told that this type of tackling will be unacceptable."

Former England coach Dick Best insists Umaga and Mealamu should have been punished for their actions which could have left O'Driscoll with a broken neck.

"We do have a duty of care to the players and we must act. I, along with millions of Lions supporters, was incensed by what happened and that nothing was brought to bear," he said.

"It was a brutal tackle which got swept under the carpet and they got away with it to a certain extent. One of our better players didn't play (in the rest of the tour) and won't play again this year. It's a disgrace."

O'Driscoll recalled in his tour diary in The Guardian: "Was I speared? I think so. Slam-dunked is probably the expression which sums it up best. Not that it makes much difference even if they just dropped me they were reckless as to whether I broke my neck or not."

Lawrence Dallaglio has called for members of the beaten Lions squad to stop turning on each other following the 3-0 series defeat.

"We all have to accept criticism for what happened. When you pull that jersey on it's up to you to perform. It is wrong to be playing the blame game.

"Everyone wants to have a say about a tour that finished months and months ago. We were outplayed, out-thought and ultimately beaten 3-0, and that says it all."