Gregor Paul: Time to move on from Brian O'Driscoll tackle

The 2017 British and Irish Lions tour will tomorrow travel back to 2005 and the whole sorry business of what happened in the first minute of the first test 12 years ago will be re-lived in intimate detail.

The clock will be wound back because Tana Umaga is going to name his Blues side to play the Lions on Wednesday and he, of course, was at the centre of the controversy 12 years ago that saw Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll ruled out of the series after just 41 seconds.

The Lions campaigned for justice 12 years ago and didn't feel they got it. Umaga was not sanctioned either during the game or after for appearing to tip O'Driscoll on his head at the edge of a ruck.

That he and his accomplice, Keven Mealamu, avoided any kind of punishment remains a curiosity but it's hardly the only occasion in the last two decades where a judicial decision has made precisely no sense.

The point is, though, that the judicial process was followed 12 years ago. Umaga didn't escape justice - he was exonerated. The incident was reviewed by citing commissioner William Venter and not deemed worthy of further exploration.

It would seem that for all the world that Venter made a serious misjudgement, but it was his and not Umaga's. If there remains within British and Irish rugby circles - as there clearly does - a sense of bitterness about the whole affair, the focal point for that anger should be the officials who said there was no case for Umaga to answer.

But somehow tomorrow will turn into an inquisition of Umaga and his role in something that happened a long time ago. He is now at the helm of an emerging - if still somewhat frustrating - Blues team who could this week make their biggest statement of his tenure.

That part of the story may not, however, get the attention it deserves and somehow it will feel that too many people are stuck looking for answers that aren't there - or certainly won't be given.

It's time to move on. Accept that the past can't be changed or those who had a role in shaping it can't be held responsible for the direction it took.

It will also feel that the true tragedy of the 2005 tour will be missed. Because what is genuinely sad looking back is that two of the All Blacks who had a huge impact on that test series are no longer with us.

Jerry Collins and Sione Lauaki both, in their uniquely destructive ways, had a major influence in the 2005 test series.

Collins came of age in that series with his defence being a feature that intimidated the Lions. There are post match images of Collins in a Lions jersey, exhausted and smiling, knowing that he had given the All Blacks everything they wanted from a No 6.

And Lauaki had some memorable cameos off the bench - tucking the ball under one of his giant arms and then sending red jerseys flying like skittles. Maybe he never had the work rate to be an 80-minute test footballer, but he had the ability to make a huge impact in 25-minute bursts.

It was a great time for New Zealand rugby and two men who were instrumental in establishing the authority of the All Blacks in that period, aren't around to see how the Lions will respond in 2017.

Neither Collins nor Lauaki made it to 40. That is the real tragedy of the 2005 tour.