Eddie Jones accuses Springboks of 'siege mentality'

By STEPHEN NELL

PERTH - The Tri-Nations spy controversy has escalated into a war of words as Wallaby coach Eddie Jones accused the Springboks of having a "siege mentality".

And Damien Holden, the former Randwick teammate of Jones, who allegedly filmed the South African training session on Monday, has denied any knowledge of the incident.

"I don't know what they're talking about," he said.

Holden claimed that he did not film the Boks' open session and left the training session at about 4.15 pm local time.

That, however, differed from the South African's version, as skipper Bob Skinstad and liaison officer Peter Holmes reportedly spotted Holden in a maroon 4x4 near the ground at approximately 5 pm.

Jones, however, dismissed the notion that the Australians had sent an agent to film the Springboks.

"We don't know anything about it. It was supposed to be an open session and in that case people scrutinise every moment. Maybe it's a bit of a siege mentality," said the Wallaby coach.

"We've only played against South Africa once this season and we have an idea how they play. We've done our homework on them," added Jones.

Springbok backline coach Tim Lane downplayed speculation of a spying mission at a press conference in Fremantle yesterday.

"We don't believe the Wallabies have sent him out, but he was spotted in the car park with a video camera.

"Some of our management went to him and he left the car park in a bit of haste. We'll just have to wait and see," said Lane, a former Wallaby assistant.

SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd managing director Rian Oberholzer said: "If it's true, it's very unfortunate that coaches have to resort to that. But you can't have an open session and be unhappy that there is someone with a video camera."

Meanwhile, South Africa's hopes for Saturday's match at the Subiaco Oval here suffered a setback when giant Cats wing Dean Hall twisted his ankle in a morning training session.

Hall will be given until Saturday morning to recover.

Thinus Delport ran in his place at training and is the likely replacement should Hall not recover in time.

- INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS (SOUTH AFRICA)