All Blacks 'bugged' in hotel

All Blacks captain Kieran Read with the team at training in Sydney yesterday. Photo: Getty Images
All Blacks captain Kieran Read with the team at training in Sydney yesterday. Photo: Getty Images

A sophisticated listening device was discovered in the All Blacks' team room in their hotel ahead of tonight's test against the Wallabies.

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

Australian police have been alerted and the hotel has launched its own investigation.

Steve Tew
Steve Tew

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."

Australian Rugby Union (ARU) boss Bill Pulver told the Herald the organisation was 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 [New Zealand Rugby] 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."

However, 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.

Australian Federal Police referred Herald inquires to New South Wales Police, who have yet to respond.

A New Zealand Police spokeswoman referred inquiries to Australian authorities.

A spokeswoman from Prime Minister John Key's office said Mr Key was not able to respond to questions because the matter was under investigation.

A spokeswoman for the office of Minister of Sport Jonathan Coleman also declined questioning, saying the matter was for New Zealand Rugby.

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 believed to have hired an investigator to determine how the device came to be in the chair.

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.

Wallaby great Matt Burke says the revelations were a "turning point in what we thought was a pure game".

" ... This is definitely a blight on what is regarded in Australia as a classic context."

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