Tana Umaga sat still, hands clasped on the top table, waiting for the British press pack to have a crack at him.
Only it all ended rather meekly.
Umaga’s role in the “O’Driscoll Incident” – ODI for short – still rankles some within the British and Irish rugby ranks, a dozen years after the All Blacks’ first Test of the 2005 series against the Lions in Christchurch.
Captaining the All Blacks against Brian O’Driscoll’s Lions at Lancaster Park, Umaga and then-teammate Keven Mealamu cleaned the Irishman out of an early ruck – only to tip him over and dislocate his shoulder.
The Lions talisman’s tour was over within two minutes and, rubbing salt into the Lions’ wounds, Umaga and Mealamu got away scot-free.
The ODI incensed the 2005 Lions side, led by a public relations-obsessed Sir Clive Woodward, as well as their travelling fans and a sizeable British and Irish media contingent, who could talk about nothing else.
Yet 12 years on, it wasn’t the ODI that Umaga was first asked to discuss at his pre-match Blues press conference at Auckland’s Alexandra Park.
Instead, he was simply asked for his memories of the tour.
“I knew you’d want to talk about 2005 but that wasn’t the question I was expecting, thank you for that,” Umaga said, to laughs around the room.
“We had good success back then, but that was back then.
“It’s all about the 2017 Blues squad that’s going to go up against them.”
But the 74-Test All Blacks back was unlikely to get away so easily – and, after a lull in which he, Sonny Bill Williams and James Parsons talked about Wednesday’s clash, another journalist fired away, however delicately.
“How do you feel knowing the incident still lingers in British minds?” Umaga was asked.
A seasoned veteran of the circuit, Umaga dead-batted to safety.
“It’s not about that time now, that was 12 years ago,” he said.
“If people can’t put it behind them, I suppose they never will.”
Responding with deference, Kiwi and British scribes alike let the issue go – until the very end, when one journalist took a second bite at the cherry.
“Mate, let’s just leave it alone, mate!” Williams exclaimed – and that was that.
