England deny Henry's spies claim

LONDON - A denial from England's Rugby Football Union and general mirth from the British media greeted Graham Henry's allegations of spying yesterday.

The All Blacks coach said two men with a camera were caught hiding in the bushes at the Grasshoppers Rugby Club in west London just as the team's closed training session was about to begin.

Allegedly clad in camouflage gear, the pair were challenged by team management and claimed they were from the Reuters news agency, before beating a hasty retreat.

"They [England] are taking it very seriously - they had their cameramen there today," Henry said.

"It's not necessary, is it? I think it's over the top...I wouldn't call it flattering, I'd call it paranoia."

A spokesman for the English union quickly responded: "It's simply not true."

Henry's claims rivalled the England cricket team's first test against Pakistan as the lead sports item on television news channels.

British papers were adamant the home side would need more than spy footage to quell the All Blacks at Twickenham on Sunday.

"The Daily Telegraph can reveal exclusively that the TV footage shows the inner secrets of the All Blacks: namely, they run very fast and score lots of tries," wrote its rugby writer, Mick Cleary.

It was recalled that former England coach Sir Clive Woodward was the master of paranoia ahead of big matches. He would have the dressing room checked from top to bottom for bugging devices or hidden cameras, and would set aside a bunker room at the team's hotel, thoroughly checked for such devices.

Chris Hewett, writing for the Independent, was also dubious about the value of an England spying mission.

"It is stretching credibility to imagine that two camouflaged cameramen recording a secret training session might tilt the balance towards England when they take on Tana Umaga's stunning All Blacks at Twickenham this weekend," he wrote.

"On the evidence of the past week and a half, 15 Andrew Sheridans armed with flame-throwers would be a more realistic option - so the pleas of innocence from the world champions' camp had a distinct ring of truth to them."

Wallabies coach Eddie Jones raised the issue of spying last week before England's 26-16 victory.

He decided against staging the team's final training at Twickenham because of its state-of-the-art system in which dozens of cameras, co-ordinated by computer, are mounted round the ground to capture every move the players make.

As it was, the Wallabies spotted a helicopter hovering over their training ground in suburban London.

The All Blacks won't have any training sessions at Twickenham this week, aside from a stroll round the ground and kicking practice.

Henry said security would not be stepped up at this week's final training sessions, which are only open for filming for the first 10 minutes.

"We try to be vigilant - we've got two guys in the coaching staff who are ex-policemen [forwards coach Steve Hansen and scrum coach Mike Cron] so they're quite good at that.

"We always have a look around. We don't like opposition teams spying on us but we know it's part of international sport."

- NZPA