When England’s Austin Healey began poking fun at a swollen and bruised Ronan O’Gara during the 2001 Lions tour of Australia, a young Brian O’Driscoll snapped and beat the lard out of him.
Now both retired, O’Driscoll made sure to let Healey that he’d not forgot the infamous scrap on Twitter.
“It’s a relief to see you eating less punches than in ‘01!” O’Driscoll tweeted, with Healey responding “Time is a great healer and has the ability to bend facts.”
Here are the version of events as told by legendary Ireland hooker Keith Wood..
“Austin came in and he was being an unbelievable pain in the a**e. I mean beyond all belief. He was touching ROG’s face and saying ‘c’mom Rog, let’s have a little boxing match.,, c’mon c’mon’.
“ROG just said ‘p**s off, just leave me alone, get away from me’ and then suddenly this little voice peeps in… ‘I’ll have a bit of that,’ says Drico and they put on a pair of boxing gloves and Drico beat the living crap out of him.”
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4 more infamous fights between players on the same side
#1. Martin Johnson & Lewis Moody, 2004
Moody’s desire to impress on his return after injury in 2004 caused a flare-up with the then Tigers captain.
“It was my first session and I was extra keen, trying to do everything and hit everything,” Moody told The Sun.
“Tempers flared and ‘Johnno’ and I had a little coming together. He gave me a little dink and I gave him a little dink – but his hurt a lot more! It’s just typical training ground stuff. You need that friendly rivalry.”
The former England captain also famously came to blows with Tigers teammate Alesana Tuilagi when England faced Samoa at Twickenham.