The British Lions’ night tour was marred by the most brutal attack ever seen on a rugby pitch

The British and Irish Lions travel to Australia in 2025 for the final leg of one of the game’s most popular traditions.

Top talent from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland will travel to Australia – almost certainly under Irish coach Andy Farrell – to face the Wallabies in their own backyard.

The tourists last traveled to Australia in 2013 when they won the Test series 2-1, with George North announcing himself on the world stage with a sensational try in Brisbane and his infamous direct attack on Israel Folau.

However, it was one incident during the 2001 trip to the Southern Hemisphere that may linger longest (and most horribly) in the memory.

Let’s go back to the events that took place at the Sydney football stadium on June 23, 2001.

The match will forever be remembered for Duncan McRae’s horrific attack on Ronan O’Gara, in which the Waratah man hit the Lions in the face 11 times.

It was a cage fight without a cage, but with only one man fighting: O’Gara simply took the beating.

When he appeared at a press conference the next night, with a black left eye and stitches inserted into a brutal cut, he looked like he had gone 12 rounds with Michael Gerard Tyson circa 1988.

But in what Lions team manager Donal Lenigan described as “the most brutal attack we have seen in rugby since it turned professional”, McRae was uncritical.

He was suspended for seven weeks. Once the Australian season ended, it was effectively a zero-game suspension. For a game trying to promote itself to a wider audience, it wasn’t exactly a glorious episode.

What happened?

The first thing to say is that nothing can justify the attack that McRae carried out against O’Gara.

The Irishman may not have endeared himself to every person on this planet over the years. He can be relentlessly sharp and intelligent and sometimes brings out his opponents’ demons – see Gethin Jenkins throw the ball to him after scoring the first goal in Wales’ Grand Slam victory over Ireland in 2005. The first push It wasn’t a celebration. but reach O’Gara. It remains one of the lasting images of that campaign.

But still…

The 22nd Waratahs-Lions match was close from the start, with Tom Bowman booked and some fans in their seats. Bowman elbowed Danny Grewcock in the face with no apparent attempt to recover the ball.

Hryukok, who has never made a sacred space flight in his career, did not humbly accept what was handed to him a week before the first challenge. He received a yellow card during the match, as did Phil Vickery.

Two other Australians also did so. You know a game is lively when Martin Johnson says at the end: “It got a little crazy.”

But even among the bumps, tricky digs and errant elbows, McRae’s work stood out. O’Gara quickly threw him out (“I thought I did it quite effectively,” he said the next night).

Perhaps too effective for McRae’s taste. The Australian attacked the Lions’ number 10 on the ground and his right hand hit the Irishman’s face like a piston.

At the stadium, the event seemed to last an eternity. McRae was sent off by referee Scott Young. If the episode had occurred on the street, the police would have taken him away.

What did they say then?

A full condemnation and an unequivocal apology were required. This did not happened.

Waratahs coach Bob Dwyer said: “O’Gara was elbowed and kicked. Duncan was offended and decided to make amends.”

The quadrature didn’t look exactly proportionate to most of the land. Lions boss Lenigan later said: “I was disappointed with the way the Waratah management tried to defend the incident, especially as they were defending something that could not be justified.

“What bothered me most was that McRae didn’t tell Ronan. There was no attempt to apologize and I thought it was very bad under the circumstances. “They were trying to say that McRae was retaliating, when it would have been much better to just throw your hands up.”

Regarding McRae and his apparent support during Elton John’s old line that “sorry” seems to be the hardest word, O’Gara said: “It’s his decision whether he apologizes or not.”

Fast forward

O’Gara revisited the episode in his autobiography, as time did little to calm his anger. “We were attacking inside the 22, I passed to Woody (Keith Wood) and he went to the 5 meter line. Two of his boys beat Woody. One of them was Duncan McRae.

“As the fight was brewing, I followed him and pushed. The next thing I knew I was on the floor and McRae was pushing my head back. After the first dig, I thought it would stop at any moment, but they kept coming. Nine. ten. Eleven. Digging the madness. One by one. I just stood there and took it. It was the strangest feeling. Lying there, I felt completely lost. As if he was in a stupor.

“Although he was on top of me, I was not immobilized. I tried to protect my face with my right hand and after a few seconds I grabbed the back of his shirt with my left. In vain. Absurd. Why didn’t I try to push him away? Hit him. something Why did I just take it?

“Two cuts under his left eye required eight stitches, but the pain was nothing compared to the humiliation. Why didn’t I try to defend myself? I messed up in the locker room. I’m furious with myself. February with McRae. When the game ended, I wanted to go to the locker room and interrupt it.”

McRae takes…

In 2013, Chris Foy of the Daily Mail caught up with McRae for an interview. Recalling that infamous episode, the former full-back said: “Ronan and I crossed paths several times before that moment. We were involved, but I ended up taking it to the wrong level. He’s a passionate guy and I’m a passionate guy, so no one’s going to give up. None of the Lions backed down that night.

“He and I know what happened there. He did something, I saw red, he was underneath me and the rest is history. That’s what I’m known for now and I have to live with that. In hindsight, I wish it hadn’t come to this, but I can’t change it now: what’s done is done.”

There were rumors of death threats from Ireland and street clashes when he was recognized. Maybe Oliver Cromwell was more unpopular on the Emerald Isle, maybe not. There was an opportunity to apologize face to face when Gloucester played Munster in the 2003 Heineken Cup.

The day was not captured. “I haven’t spoken to him personally,” McRae said. “When the Munster game finished I got back on the bus and didn’t get a chance to speak to him.

“You have to ask him if he has any resentment, but I live in Australia and he lives in Ireland and that’s it.”

In fact, he had already apologized for what happened, but not directly to O’Gary.

final word

Perhaps it’s best to return to Austin Healy’s thoughts on an incident that occurred years ago. “Duncan was offended that someone had done something perfectly legal to him and decided to punch him in the face 11 times,” Healy said. “Cowardly would be the most appropriate way to sum it up.”

McRae is a really good guy, they say. But that night in Sydney he lost control. The following season’s Wales Rugby Annual said he gave “an impressive performance as a furious street fighter”.

Bob Dwyer’s Night Vision? “I would say the police interpret the force as excessive.” An understatement if there ever was one.