Rugby: Spies don't bother All Blacks

The All Blacks have given up trying to stop opposition teams from filming their training sessions. Photo / Getty Images

LONDON - If you want to spy on us, come and take your best shot, says All Blacks assistant rugby coach Steve Hansen.

After years of grumblings about paranoia as they shrouded their training sessions with heavy security, the All Blacks coaches have finally let down their guards in London as they prepare to face England at Twickenham.

Short of issuing an invitation, Hansen insisted he was beyond caring if England wanted to secretly film their training sessions, or post a spy in camouflage gear in the bushes.

"We'll just do what we normally do and if they want to watch us I guess they'll do that. It's pretty tough to stop them, so we've just taken the attitude they can watch us as much as they like and we'll just get on with it," Hansen said.

Spying has been a popular subject with Hansen and his fellow coaches Graham Henry and Wayne Smith during their six-year stint at the helm.

On the grand slam tour in 2005, the coaches claimed they caught a cameraman filming their London training session from the undergrowth.

And in recent times the Wallabies earned Hansen's ire as he accused Australia's Channel Seven of filming their closed session in Brisbane last year and handing the footage to home coach Robbie Deans.

Their most recent Australia test in Sydney in August was notable for a bevy of security guards who ruthlessly patrolled North Sydney Oval and told any onlookers peering through the locked gates to move on.

There was a feeling in the camp that most of their final session at Cardiff Arms Park before the Wales test a fortnight ago was filmed. It wouldn't have been a difficult task with blocks of apartments looming over the ground.

Wales coach Warren Gatland publicly claimed Dan Carter wasn't going to play that test, coincidentally after he didn't train for much of the Thursday session to rest his injured calf muscle as Stephen Donald ran the backline instead.

"It's not unusual, most people do (secretly watch trainings). We're pretty open with what we do. We get criticised for being paranoid... you guys have actually worked it out, well done," Hansen said.

- NZPA