O'Driscoll suffered serious shoulder damage after being upended by All Black captain Tana Umaga and veteran hooker Keven Mealamu shortly after kick-off at Jade Stadium.
The saga has been given a fair airing from the UK press in the lead-up to this year's series, and no doubt will continue be in the countdown to the first test.
"The fact that the Brian O'Driscoll incident still gets talked about doesn't surprise me at all," New Zealand Rugby Museum director Stephen Berg said.
"It was a really bad moment in rugby. Illegal play or foul play in rugby, which is looked at now closely, even in 2005 you got away with.
"Those guys would probably have got banned [now] ... [but] got away scot free."
While Lions fans will forever remember the 2005 tour for the O'Driscoll affair, All Black fans have much fonder memories.
The Sir Graham Henry coached-team won the series 3-0.
And the second test in Wellington, won by the ABs 48-18, was the scene of arguably Dan Carter's greatest performance for the men in black; scoring two tries and kicking four conversions and five penalties.
"Dan Carter had the ball on a string," Berg said.
"It was unbelievable - just about everything he touched turned to gold. It was Jeff Wilson-esque. He chip kicked the ball and regathered, scored tries and kicked from all angles.
"He was a young guy, in his prime, self belief that he could do anything and he backed himself. He made magic happen that day."
The Lions had earlier arrived in New Zealand with a whopping 44-man playing squad.
Injuries saw them call on a further eight players due to injuries on tour.
Off the field they were also accompanied by a 26-strong management staff, including spin-doctor Alastair Campbell, their own chef, a referee's advisor and a top lawyer.
"In 2005 there was a huge number of hangers on, as I call them, outside of the players," Berg said.
"These hangers on I guess were ... part of making sure everything was organised down to the most minute detail."
As well as losing the test series the Lions also went down to New Zealand Maori 19-13; the Maori side's first ever win over the Lions.
The highlight on the scoreboard for the Lions on tour was their record 109-6 hammering over Manawatu.
This year is the first Lions tour when the selection won't play standalone provincial teams, with Berg saying what happened during the rout against Manawatu showed the huge gap between the elite Lions and semi-professional New Zealand provinces.
"The fact that the Lions won't turn up again to play provincial teams, it is sad in a way. It was nice that they would get out to the smaller centres , but rugby has moved on a little bit," he said.
Berg said provincial teams weren't as strong anymore, whereas the Lions were filled with professional players of the highest calibre.
"In 2005 we did see a little bit of a mis-match here in Manawatu when the Lions scored over 100 points. Is that good for rugby? These guys now are likely to do that to any provincial team".
"It [the Manawatu result] was embarrassing, but it showed the difference between professionals and semi-professionals".
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• Thanks to the New Zealand Rugby Museum, its director Stephen Berg and rugby historian Clive Akers
