You're barred, Dublin pubs tell Umaga

[sligoman]

New Zealand captain Tana Umaga could be hard pushed to get a pint in Dublin this weekend after a number of pubs put up posters telling him he's barred.

Umaga, who dumped Ireland skipper Brian O'Driscoll out of the British and Ireland Lions tour of New Zealand this year with a controversial spear tackle, has incurred the wrath of Ireland fans, including Charlie Chawke, owner of at least six popular Dublin pubs.

"We have to make a protest about what he did to our own sporting hero," Chawke told Reuters.

"We believe he tried to destroy the man and he could have deprived us all in Ireland of a great rugby legend."

Posters in the windows of Chawke's hostelries, including city centre sporting pubs The Bank and The Oval, show Umaga's face with "Barred" emblazoned above it.

Chawke said that if Umaga, who will accompany the All Blacks for their match at Lansdowne Road on Saturday but has not been included in the match 22, entered any of his pubs he would be shown the door.

"He seems to be a bit of an animal so we also have to keep the safety of our customers in mind," Chawke said, adding it was "a bit of fun as well".

Critics have slammed the incident in the first minute of the Lions' opening test in which Umaga and team mate Keven Mealamu combined to lift O'Driscoll out of a ruck and throw him to the ground, dislocating his shoulder.

O'Driscoll is still recovering from the injury and has been ruled out of Saturday's clash.

Mealamu, who has received much less publicity for his part in the incident, has been named as the starting hooker in Saturday's match.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/09112005/80...ell-umaga.html

[Lim till i die]

I realise it's a cute publicity stunt but the whole Umaga thing has to stop people.

If dainty little Brian is prepared to give it he should be prepared to take it and not whinge like the proverbial spoilt little girl

[pete]

This is very sad. If i was watching from New Zealand would think we all a bunch of whingers unable to play a mans game.

[beautifulrock]

correct, lets get over this. I hope there is no form of "protest" on Saturday, it is becoming embarassing to the extreme. From the Aussies in the compromise rules to this we are turning into a nation of whingers and wimps.

[Soko]

This is very sad. If i was watching from New Zealand would think we all a bunch of whingers unable to play a mans game.

Too much hype but the "tackle" was a disgrace and had nothing to do with any sort of game.

[Thunderblaster]

If you want to ban more people from Dublin pubs for discrediting Ireland, you can start with that Islamic Fundamentalist that was lecturing the other night. You can look at Ian Paisley, Goran Stavreski from Macedonia, Salvatore Schillacchi, Cian O'Connor, the EastEnders production team in 1997, Michelle Smith, Steve Cruz, the English fans that wrecked Lansdowne Road in 1995, The Aussie Rules team and Wim Kieft. Really, if we ban people from pubs just over a spear tackle 12,000 miles away, we are really losing our marbles.

[CollegeTillIDie]

There were two spear tackles in today's game one from each side.

[pete]

Ireland were clearly banned from playing rugby last saturday

[finlma]

The 2 tackles in the game weren't that bad. There was only such a reaction from the crowd because of the BOD tackle - people didn't know what a spear tackle was before and tackles like the Nonu one would have normally been cheered. Bandwagon jumping.

I was at the game and we are useless - its the worst Irish team for 10+ years.

On another note - my housemate buys the Star and I was looking through it on Friday. There was an article on 10 reasons why New Zealand is boring - it was pathetic.