Handbags At Dawn

I was amused to read in Metro (the freebie paper) today, about an incident which occured between All Blacks Tana Umaga and Chris Masoe at the weekend.

The pair were out at a bar in Christchurch on Saturday evening, drowining their sorrows after their Hurricanes' defeat in the Super14 finals, and celebrating Umaga's 33rd birthday.

Masoe was apparently accidentally tripped by someone at the bar, and took exception to this, throwing a punch at the hapless drinker. In order to avert the fracas escalating, Umaga then grabbed a woman's handbag and thumped Masoe with it, to bring him back to his senses! Masoe promptly burst into tears. And the pair were thrown out of the establishment shortly afterwards by a female bouncer. The ignominy of it!

Well, if England want to counter the effects of the Haka next time New Zealand visit Twickers in the Autumn (5th Novemeber has been pencilled in), maybe they should each whip out a handbag from under their jumpers and brandish them at rugby's "alleged" hard men :-D

Just to show they're not always quite as soft, here's one of my photos of Umaga scoring a try, closely followed up by Masoe, when the All Blacks last played at Twickenham in November 2005.

Add: 2nd June 2006:
I read that the entrepreneurial lady who's handbag inflicted the blows has decided to put it up for auction. Good for her!