Cloak and dagger tactics will thwart Harry's spying mission

Is Prince Harry here to spy on us ahead of this year's Rugby World Cup? Photo / Getty Images

Royal rugby espionage. You can't be too careful with Prince Harry taking in tonight's Super Rugby match in Wellington.

He spent some time playing at Eccles RFC in Salford so he has a strong appreciation of how the game works.

Prince Harry is also patron of England's programme for rugby in schools, the honorary president of the group delivering the World Cup this year and is often seen at Twickers cheering on the national side.

There's little chance Stuart Lancaster or some of his henchmen would be welcomed so enthusiastically to the Cake Tin but the Prince has the perfect cover for his inspection.

Two can play this World Cup curtain-raiser though.

The Hurricanes were wised up and used the convenient excuse of spelling some of their All Black firepower like Julian Savea and TJ Perenara while Beauden Barrett and Dane Coles are on the injured roster.

Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Jeremy Thrush and Ben Franks will suit up but they have been around long enough not to divulge any secrets to the pair of royal orbs.

Victor Vito is back in business tonight but he's been out for some time so if loose forward colleague Ardie Savea does his bit and races around like a startled chook and scores a few tries, the Prince can take that intelligence back to HQ.

That's only fair after the All Blacks took him to the UK a couple of years ago as a special project and never let the Brits clap their eyes on him in a game.

There should also be some NZR plan to have Steve Tew on one side of the Prince to help deflect his attention towards some of the Sharks players tonight who are pushing for places in the Springbok squad.

There's a swag of them from the du Plessis brothers and the Beast up front, to Frans Steyn and JP Pietersen in midfield; men who will be determined to fix last week's weak production to give the competition leaders a tune-up after the public roasting they received back home.

It might be tough for Tew to promote the opposition. However he can excuse that by plonking on his Sanzar or World Rugby hat and lauding the Sharks' work to the Prince.

Then just to make sure he gets a little fuzzy about what he's seen, NZR should invite the playful prince playboy to their drinks room.