11th, was selected to replace Reuben Thorne. He was the first New Zealander of Pacific Island heritage to captain the All Blacks in a test match. Umaga's captaincy began well, with victory in the first six tests, including two victories against World Cup holders England. One of them, a 36–3 win at Carisbrook in Dunedin, was at the time the heaviest loss ever by the team that won the most recent Rugby World Cup. The All Blacks of 2004 successfully managed to regain the Bledisloe Cup. The winning run came to an end, when the All Blacks lost in both away games against Australia and South Africa, putting the All Blacks out of contention for the 2004 Tri Nations series. In Paris in 2004 Umaga became the first New Zealand rugby player of non-Maori descent to lead the Haka, thus making him the Prematch Haka leader. In the 2004 end-of-year tour he oversaw the 45–6 victory over France. Umaga also celebrated his 100th match for the Hurricanes, when his team overcame the Blues. They made the semi-final for the second time in three years, but again stumbled to a loss to the champion Crusaders. In 2005 the British & Irish Lions toured, on top of the Tri Nations and the potential Grand Slam tour of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Umaga was involved in an incident in the first Test of the Lions' tour on 25 June 2005 that caused friction between the Lions and the All Blacks. Early in the Test, Umaga and hooker Keven Mealamu upended Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll in a post-ruck clean-out. O'Driscoll required surgery on a dislocated shoulder and missed the rest of the tour. The British and Irish media accused Umaga of foul play. O'Driscoll and Lions management characterised the incident as a "deliberate spear tackle". The independent citing commissioner found that neither Umaga nor Mealamu had a case to answer at the time due to inconclusive evidence, but after viewing new amateur footage of the incident, Greg Thomas, communications manager for the sport's governing body, the International Rugby Board (IRB), described the incident as "unacceptably dangerous" and stated that IRB was instructing referees to suspend players for three to six months for such offences. Daily Telegraph London journalist Brendan Gallagher labelled it as one of the fifty 'ugliest moments' in sports. In August 2014 Brian O'Driscoll renewed his rivalry with Tana Umaga when