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All Blacks bugging 'not catastrophic' - NZRU

Author
Gregor Paul, NZ Herald, AAP,
Publish Date
Sat, 20 Aug 2016, 11:19AM
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, who is a former police officer (NZ Herald)
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, who is a former police officer (NZ Herald)

All Blacks bugging 'not catastrophic' - NZRU

Author
Gregor Paul, NZ Herald, AAP,
Publish Date
Sat, 20 Aug 2016, 11:19AM

UPDATED 4.00PM:  A sophisticated listening device planted in the All Black's Sydney hotel, may have recorded a team meeting, New Zealand Rugby said. 

The device was uncovered in a meeting room on Monday during a routine security check at the Intercontinental hotel in Sydney's Double Bay, where the All Blacks are staying, NZ Rugby chief Steve Tew said.

"There was an All Blacks team meeting there earlier in the week. If the device was working properly, and we don't know that for sure then they would have overheard that," Tew told reporters outside the hotel today.

"But we don't think it's a catastrophic issue for the game tonight. We're going to get on with it."

Tew said he has spoken with Australian Rugby Union chief Bill Pulver who was "just as shocked as I was" at the bugging.

"We haven't made any accusations of anybody so there's no room for denials," he said when asked if Australia had denied involvement in the incident.

Tew added the All Blacks got the hotel to investigate before calling in police.

The discovery comes ahead of tonight's Bledisloe Cup test against the Wallabies.

The device - the sort used by law enforcement and spying agencies - had been planted in a chair in the hotel where the team have been staying since Sunday, the New Zealand Herald learned.

LISTEN: Matt Burke - I hope we wouldn't go that far

Australian Police released a statement this afternoon appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

"Police have attended a hotel at Double Bay today after a listening device was located in a room there on Monday 15 August 2016.

"Police have become aware of the allegation today. Inquiries are continuing," the statement said.

The hotel has launched its own investigation.

The Herald understands the foam of the seat appeared to have been deliberately and carefully cut to make way for the surveillance device and then sewn or glued back together to be almost undetectable.

It was discovered on Monday after team management asked the security detail looking after them in Australia to sweep the room for bugs.

The Herald has been told that hiding the device was a highly skilled and meticulous act and whoever put it there would have needed a significant amount of time to have pulled off such an accomplished job.

In a statement New Zealand Rugby confirmed an investigation was underway.

NZR chief executive Steve Tew said: "A listening device was found in a meeting room this week during a routine security check.

"The hotel immediately launched an investigation, we have informed the Australian Rugby Union, and jointly we have now decided to hand over the investigation to the Australian police.

"We are taking this issue very seriously, and given it will be a police matter, it would not be prudent to go into further details."

The revelation will send shockwaves around the world game and is likely to force an investigation by governing body World Rugby into whether the integrity of the game has been compromised.

The All Blacks suspected some of their team rooms may have been bugged during last year's World Cup in England but they didn't have the sort of sophisticated equipment they needed to detect any listening devices.

In Sydney, they had access to high level equipment and were able to detect the planted device - but that was after they had held a team meeting in their off-limits room the night before.

If the device was working - and the indications are that it was - then whoever had access to its transmission would have heard the All Blacks' gameplan for tonight's test and their preparation plans for the week.

In a typical test build-up, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen - a former police officer - lays out his expectations on a Sunday and details how he wants his team to play.

A player was sitting on the chair with the planted device but it's believed the bug was hi-tech enough that it wouldn't have affected the quality of the transmission.

All Blacks management have been advised that under Australian federal law: "Generally, it is an offence to knowingly install, use or cause to be used, or maintain a listening device to record a private conversation, whether or not the person is a party to that private conversation.

"If a person is not a party to a private conversation it is also an offence for them to knowingly install, use or cause to be used, or maintain a listening device to overhear, monitor, or listen to the private conversation."

The hotel - the Intercontinental in Double Bay - is also believed to have hired an investigator to determine how the device came to be in the chair.

It is not yet known whether hotel management has involved police.

Wherever the All Blacks stay, they are allocated a room by the hotel where the players can gather and where private meetings about strategy, tactics and selection can take place.

This room is always clearly marked as private, is usually roped off or inaccessible to anyone other than players and management and sometimes even has security personnel monitoring the entrance.

If the device was planted with the intention of listening into the All Blacks, then whoever was trying to do that would also have needed to have known which room to place the chair and have been able to get it in there undetected.

The All Blacks have been aware over the years of various attempts by people to spy on them while they have been training. But while they have suspected that they may have been bugged by listening devices in the past, this is the first time they have found definitive evidence.

Australian Rugby Union boss Bill Pulver told the Herald the ARU has only just been alerted to the discovery by Tew this morning – and the two rugby bodies have handed the matter to police.

Pulver immediately cleared the ARU from any involvement or knowledge whatsoever.

“Look, I have literally just seen a note from Steve Tew telling me about this and a brief statement they [NZR] are about to put out which confirms that they found a listening device and the two unions have agreed to hand the matter over to the police,” Pulver said,

“Mate, of course [the ARU is not involved]. It is completely ludicrous. I just think it’s a ludicrous concept that there are listening devices being placed in team rooms. I don’t know how that could happen.”

Despite the issue now being a police matter, Pulver said his concern was media revealing the scandal “on match day”.

“I’m utterly disappointed the story would break on match day and frankly, that’s all I’ve got to say,” Pulver said.

“We are going to focus on a game of rugby that we’ve got tonight and we will deal with this matter after the rugby.

“I simply don’t know the background but I’m clearly disappointed it gets out to the media on the day of a Bledisloe Cup match.”

Jeremy Ryan, the hotel’s duty manager at the Intercontinental in Double Bay, had absolutely no idea about the situation until contact by the Herald this morning.

Former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry said there has been a history of spying at rugby’s top level, but never in his distinguished career has he ever heard of an operation like this.

The man who guided New Zealand to Rugby World Cup success in 2011 said security sweeps have been routine for well over a decade.

“There has been spying in the past,” Henry told the Herald. “But that’s usually something at the practice venue, videoing training or someone watching and taking notes. That sort of thing has happened in world rugby before, let’s be frank about that.

“But I’ve never heard of bugging before.

“There’s security people with the team, which have been there for a long time – right through my time and I started in 2004. Those procedures are not done by All Blacks management, there’s security people who are employed to look after the side. They’re good men who do a good job.”

Henry said at this stage “you can’t point the finger” at anyone, saying the device could have been planted a long time ago.

“We don’t know who is responsible and it may have been there from some other time,” he said. “You can’t point the finger, you just don’t know. It could have been there another reason.”

Wayne Buck Shelford had not heard of the news when contacted by the Herald this afternoon, but said he was not too worried about the revelations.

"It's just something that's happened - let them worry about it.''

 

 

 

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