Wallabies target lineout codes, claims Springbok coach

1.00pm

SYDNEY - All Blacks take note: the Wallabies are indulging in espionage at the lineout, according to Springboks coach Jake White.

White has warned New Zealand that their lineout codes will be targeted by a Wallabies' analysis unit during the Tri-Nations test in Sydney tomorrow night.

White has claimed Wallabies reserve Dan Vickerman told him after last week's test in Perth that the Australians employed an analyst to break down the Springboks' calls during the first half.

The information was relayed to the Wallabies pack at halftime, allowing them to take control at the set piece in the second half.

The lineout count favoured Australia 24-10, including six steals from Springboks throws. The Wallabies won the match 30-26.

Wallabies coach Eddie Jones last night said all his camp had done was use the Sportsears technology, available to patrons at the ground, to listen in to the Springboks' calls and try to decipher where the ball would be thrown.

Sportsears allow spectators to listen to the referee throughout the game and pick up ancillary noise around him.

"We've all got the same amount of information we can go off," Jones told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

He denied the Wallabies had organised a special feed of the referee's microphone through host broadcaster Channel 7.

"Everyone's got the ref's call. Everyone's got Sportsears.

"I think Jake's just clutching at straws to take a bit of the heat off himself.

"Everyone does the same amount of analysis. Everyone tries to work out everyone else's lineout calls and that's what the game is about."

White admitted he would copy the Australian approach when the Springboks host the All Blacks and Wallabies in the final two rounds of the Tri-Nations series later this month.

"There was a hell of a battle in the lineouts last weekend and there was definitely something there that looked like they could read our calls," White said in South Africa.

"Dan Vickerman told me afterwards that Eddie Jones had hired a fulltime guy to do an analysis of our lineouts in the first half. He also had the referee's audio link so that he could hear the calls (through the official's on-jersey microphone).

"He would then put the calls together with the jumpers and gave the information to the Wallabies at halftime and that definitely had an impact. It shows how far we have come with technology."

White said he would talk to television executives in South Africa to determine whether they could assist with a feed from the referee's microphone for the upcoming games in Johannesburg and Durban.

- NZPA