Umaga heavy brigade shows united front

All Black captain Tana Umaga is questioned about THAT tackle on Brian O'Driscoll at rugby HQ in Wellington. Picture / Mark Mitchell

At first glance, Tana Umaga seemed isolated. A lone rugby player, the All Blacks captain, sitting on his hands waiting to be trampled by a British and Irish media scrum.

Anton Oliver suggested it may have been the Lions' intent to split Umaga from his pack. If that was the case, it was a resounding failure.

But Oliver was on Umaga's right flank yesterday as he prepared to be "grilled" about whether he was a dirty player who had ended Lions' captain Brian O'Driscoll's tour with a spear tackle.

And to Umaga's left stood vice-captain Richie McCaw, with locks Ali Williams and Chris Jack towering behind. An awesome bodyguard.

Scattered throughout the room at New Zealand Rugby Union HQ in Wellington - but there deliberately - were the rest of the All Blacks.

On stage, in front of scores of journalists, sat a downcast Umaga, leaning slightly forward, hands tucked away, looking as though the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders.

"I must say, I'm really excited about seeing you guys," he opened. It was a half-hearted joke.

No, he hadn't been to see Brian yet. When he did go, it would be done privately.

Was the tackle an accident?

"Yes," he said, and then again more firmly. "Yes."

"The way I play, I play hard. In all my games I try to play as fair as I can. That's the way I am.

"I really don't have that much else to say other than it was an unfortunate incident, and these things happen."

He was rocked back on his chair only once by the questions, which were much gentler than those dished out to All Blacks coach Graham Henry a day earlier.

Had the controversy cast a cloud over New Zealand rugby?

That hurt. Umaga said he knew the All Blacks were role models because of the standing they held in society.

"When that is hit, that's the most disappointing thing for me."

A grim Oliver didn't budge from Umaga's side even after most of the reporters had left and the questions had turned to tamer matters, like Saturday's second test.

He was there, he said, "because I'm his friend, and he's my captain."

The Lions' machine had embarked on a ridiculous, "juvenile and rather transparent" attempt to destabilise the All Blacks and the entire tour was a departure from romantic notions of sport.

"Hopefully it'll just be a blip, and everything will just go down and we can just be a bunch of overgrown adolescents throwing a ball around.

"It can't stay at this level ... it's keystone cops stuff after a while."

Down the road in the capital, Lions coach Clive Woodward was making seven changes to his Lions side after its disappointing 21-3 loss to the All Blacks.

"I've been involved in rugby for a long time and I'd put it top of the list of most disappointing nights," said the World Cup winner.

"Rightly so, I've had to take all the arrows and stones and bricks this week."