Madam, - I cannot believe some of the letters I have read in The Irish Times on the Brian O'Driscoll incident in the first test and, following on, the sheer vitriol and insults concerning the Haka.
The Haka is an integral part of NZ rugby. It is a tradition. The Haka and how the Lions captain faced up to it had nothing to do with O'Driscoll's injury. He was indeed illegally taken out by two players off the ball and the touch judge should have furthered his grasp on the situation but he let it pass. The IRB afforded little room for video evidence in their unrealistic 12-hour timeframe for any citations.
What followed was an attempt to cloud the real issues highlighted by that test match.
An over-conservative head coach, Woodward, along with his over-conservative assistants, Messrs Robinson and O'Sullivan, keeping the ball rolling with endless press conferences, as it were, to hide their deficiencies in providing the rugby public with a team and tactics capable of competing with the All Blacks.
That team last week was not a test team. It was a reunion.
It seems that adding Alastair Campbell to a jam-packed hotel full of players and staff was money well spent for Woodward & Co to save their faces.
And with it they have united the Lions fans all right. United them in a tribalistic whinge which frankly is getting boring and making me lose all hope of this test series providing any decent rugby, regardless of results. - Yours, etc,
JUSTIN DEEGAN, Trondheimsveien, Oslo, Norway.
Madam, - Much has been written and broadcast about the tackle that ended Brian O'Driscoll's 2005 Lions Tour as a player.
However, there seems to be much made of the Lions' response to the Haka, as if this was in some way (a) responsible for, and (b) a reasonable excuse for, the spear tackle on the Irish captain.
Whether what O'Driscoll did in response to the Haka was disrespectful or not is in my view absolutely irrelevant. Is it excusable to break the rules in response to verbal abuse?
Is it excusable to retaliate in kind even when an opponent has physically abused a player?
The firm answer in rugby and any other sporting code is NO. Players are not allowed to take the law into their own hands.
If what O'Driscoll did was disrespectful then the best way for the All Blacks to respond is on the pitch by winning and outplaying the Lions, which, apart from the O'Driscoll incident, is exactly what they did.
The whole respect/disrespect issue is another smokescreen, this time put up by New Zealand to deflect attention from the harsh truth of a targeted lack of sportsmanship, in much the same way as the Lions have used the incident to deflect attention from the harsh truth of a dreadful display on the pitch.
Rugby is a great sport which has always had inherent risks which can, thankfully very rarely,lead to serious injury or permanent disablement of players as a result of unfortunate accidents on the field of play.
If, however, such a risk comes about by the targeted actions of an opponent (even if not calculated to do so) the game will never survive in the long run. - Yours, etc,
ALAN KIRWAN, Blackrock, Co Dublin.