Keven Mealamu's role in the infamous injury to Brian O'Driscoll in the opening minutes of the first British and Irish Lions test in 2005 remains topical in Ireland.

One Irish writer opined this week that it was a 'measure' of coach Graham Henry that he rated Mealamu as a special person. The inference was that the 'thuggery' inflicted on O'Driscoll meant he wasn't.

Mealamu has been out of the spotlight with the All Blacks based in Castleknock in the rural outskirts of Dublin, but they shift to the city centre on Friday.

When asked by a reporter if he'd had a chance to test his popularity with the locals Mealamu smiled and said he was confident things would be okay.

"We'll just have to see how it goes but the people here are pretty nice."

Life wasn't so sweet when Tama Umaga was with the All Blacks in Ireland in 2005.

The All Blacks skipper was painted as the main villain in the injury to O'Driscoll, suffered when he was upended by Mealamu and Umaga early in the test at Christchurch.

They were both banned from pubs in Dublin and the All Blacks increased their security around Umaga when he sat in the stands for the test at Lansdowne Road.

Umaga later stirred things up again when, in his book Tana Umaga Up Close, he labelled O'Driscoll a sook and a cry baby.

He also said the "sustained personal attack they [the Lions] launched against me was hard to believe and even harder to stomach".

"You don't want to take it personally but it's almost impossible not to when another player, a guy you had some respect for, attacks your character in the most direct and damning terms.

"My first thought was, 'Jeez, don't be a sook; there's no use crying about it, man, it's over'.

"At first, the kerfuffle didn't really bother me. It was a case of 'oh well, that's the way it is'.

"But it just snowballed and O'Driscoll kept going on about the fact that I hadn't rung him to say sorry. I finally obtained his number and got hold of him but it wasn't a warm exchange.

"He was still angry that I hadn't gone over to see how he was, and once he'd got that off his chest, he accused me of being involved in a lot of off-the-ball incidents.

"When he started talking about off-the-ball stuff and me not being a gentleman, I thought, 'Oh, you're reaching now'. I never went out to commit foul play: I didn't punch guys on the ground or stomp on them.

"So I said, 'Oh well, mate, we'll just have to agree to disagree. I'm sorry for what happened to you but there was no intent in it; it was one of those unfortunate things that happen in rugby.'"

Mealamu was not targeted for much of the Lions media campaign attacks organised by their political spin doctor Alistair Campbell with several appearing to ask scripted questions.

However, elements of the Irish media have recorded his presence in the starting XV for Sunday and teammate Ali Williams had been winding him up since they landed in Dublin on Sunday that he should watch his back.

The hooker, who can be feisty on the field but is extremely mild mannered off it, was relaxed about the reception he would receive by the 82,300 at Croke Park on Sunday.

"It happened a lifetime ago," he said with his customary smile, "but I suppose it's one of those things you'll never live down."

Especially when you're in Dublin.

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