RUGBY: The ramifications of Brian O'Driscoll's tour-ending, dislocated shoulder rumbled on as the Lions hobbled on to Wellington yesterday for what will most probably be their Waterloo next Saturday.
It's doubtful if even the Irish and Lions captain at his brilliant best could have done much to lift the tourists' ill-conceived, shambolic display in Canterbury; but how he will be missed now.
Your heart truly went out to O'Driscoll as he attended the Sunday morning catch-up press conference in Christchurch with his arm in a sling and facing a recuperation period of up to six months after undergoing surgery when he returns home.
"I'm absolutely gutted that my tour is over," said O'Driscoll.
"I feel a lot of frustration and anger. I've no doubt that it was a spear tackle that ended my tour. To work so hard to get here and then it only lasts one minute doesn't seem justified."
Gareth Thomas, the newly installed captain, remained every bit as angry as O'Driscoll himself and Clive Woodward over the way the Irish centre's tour was cruelly and cynically cut short 40 seconds into the first Test without the culprits, Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu, having a case to answer.
At yesterday evening's press conference, the attendant media were frequently shown a video of the first-minute incident that caused O'Driscoll's injury.
At the game's first ruck, after O'Driscoll has tackled Leon MacDonald and is then pushing into Jerry Collins, a Sky camera from behind the Lions' end-goal captures the hooker Mealamu clearly lifting O'Driscoll up by his left leg while his captain, Umaga, hoists him by the right. The shots then return to a grainier, TV angle but still show O'Driscoll being speared onto the ground.
"In my view that's a very dangerous spear tackle," commented Woodward, reiterating that the players should have been cited.
Albeit unbeknownst to Umaga and Mealamu, critically by now the All Blacks scrumhalf Justin Marshall has passed the ruck ball on to Daniel Carter, and Woodward points to Thomas, standing nearby, remonstrating with touch judge Andrew Cole, who is also the referee in next week's second Test and has come onto the pitch.
"What I heard as clear as day, just after Marshall has got the ball in his hands, the linesman shouts 'leave him alone, leave him alone, the ball has gone'," interjected Thomas. "When I see Drico's legs in the air, I'm pointing to the linesman, saying 'you've just said leave him alone, leave him alone.' And that's what enraged me to go and chase the linesman to hope he'd come into play and call something."
Woodward also dismissed the notion that the unusual response of O'Driscoll and the Lions to the All Blacks' haka might be linked to what followed.
O'Driscoll's parents, Frank and Geraldine, along with his sisters Susan and Julie, had only arrived out on Saturday to see the Lions captain on his biggest day.
While the match citing officer, Willem Venter of South Africa, found there was no evidence to warrant citing Umaga and Mealamu, the case against Danny Grewcock for biting Mealamu's finger in the 63rd minute was upheld by the judicial officer, Terry Willis, and he was suspended for two months.
So Grewcock, along with Saturday's injured trio of O'Driscoll, Richard Hill and Tom Shanklin, is out of the tour, and is likely to be replaced by Wales's Aussie-born lock Brent Cockbain.
O'Driscoll, Woodward confirmed, would "remain with us for the rest of the tour".
