Gregor Paul: All Blacks spygate far from over

Name: Watch: All Blacks bugged in hotel ahead of Wallabies Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney
Uploaded: 2016-08-20T12:14:40+12:00
Duration: 76 s
Description: 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 Herald has learned.

By Gregor Paul

Rugby analyst·NZ Herald·

7 Feb, 2017 04:00 PM3 mins to read

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 Herald has learned.

Opinion by Gregor Paul

Rugby analyst and feature writer

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An arrest may have been made, but it's unlikely Spygate is over. It may, in fact, just be beginning and what was one of the more bizarre and sensational stories in rugby's modern history could yet produce more shocks.

Since the Herald broke the news that the All Blacks had found a listening device in their hotel team room ahead of the first Bledisloe Cup test last year in Sydney, it has been a classic whodunnit.

Everyone has had their suspicions but none could legally be aired.

The Australian Rugby Union, however, has been vocal and clearly felt the timing of the story - on the morning of the Rugby Championship test on August 20 - was designed to unsettle the Wallabies.

Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver has also been at pains to see the timing as a veiled implication of involvement and without ever being accused of anything, he has protested the ARU's innocence again and again.

He did so again yesterday, minutes after the New South Wales police had released a statement that a 51-year-old man had been arrested in connection with their inquiry.

The man in question, believed to be the chief security contractor who was working for the All Blacks that week, has been charged with public mischief - essentially lying to the police.

And the great hope for Pulver and the police is that this draws a line under the matter and allows them to move on.

But it may not be so simple as a couple of things don't sit neatly within the existing picture.

The first, is of course, the implication that the All Blacks took an opportunity to unsettle the Wallabies on game day.

The Wallabies, whom they had beaten 22 times in the past eight years.

The Wallabies, whom they had thumped in the World Cup final and hadn't lost a series to since 2003?

Perhaps Pulver needs to recall that the Wallabies came into the first Bledisloe on the back of four straight defeats - including a 3-0 drubbing on home soil to England.

The Wallabies were under pressure in August. There was talk of disharmony in the team while the world champion All Blacks had taken their game to the next level throughout the June test series.

And here is where it gets super tricky: crimes have to have motive, opportunity and means.

In relation to the arrest that has been made, two of those are simple enough to tick off.

But what about motive? What exactly would that be in this case? That's why this matter may be far from dead because all the pieces have to fit.